Leaves coarsely serrate above the middle.
Leaves oval to semiorbicular or obovate, hoary-tomentose below,
sinuate-dentate; flowers short-pedicellate.
1. C. Traskiæ.
Leaves oval to slightly obovate, green and glabrous below,
denticulate with broad apiculate teeth; flowers
long-pedicellate.
2. C. alnifolius.
Leaves finely serrate above the middle, obovate to oval, pale and
villose below; flowers short-pedicellate.
3. C. betuloides.
Flowers solitary or rarely in 2 or 3-flowered clusters, nearly
sessile.
Leaves narrow-lanceolate, lance-elliptic or oblanceolate, acute at
the ends, entire, pale or rufous below.
4. C. ledifolius.
Leaves oblong-obovate to narrow-elliptic, entire or slightly dentate
below the apex, villose-pubescent.
5. C. paucidentatus.
1. Cercocarpus Traskiæ Eastw.
[Illustration: Fig. 507]
Leaves oval to semiorbicular or obovate, rounded or acute at apex,
cuneate, rounded or occasionally somewhat cordate at the narrow base,
revolute on the margins, entire below, coarsely sinuate-dentate above
the middle with slender teeth tipped with minute dark glands, when they
unfold covered above with soft pale hairs and below with thick hoary
tomentum, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green, lustrous and villose
or nearly glabrous on the upper surface, pale-tomentose on the lower
surface, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, with prominent primary veins
running obliquely to the point of the teeth, and, like the stout midrib,
conspicuously impressed on the upper side; petioles stout,
hoary-tomentose, about ¼′ in length; stipules acuminate, scarious,
covered on the margins with long white hairs, ¼′ long. Flowers appearing
early in March, nearly sessile, in 1—5 usually 4 or 5-flowered clusters,
hoary-tomentose, ½′—¾′ long; calyx broad, glabrous on the inner surface;
anthers tomentose. Fruit: mature calyx, light reddish brown,
villose-pubescent, deeply cleft at apex, ½′ long; akene slightly ridged
on the back, ⅓′ in length, covered with long lustrous white hairs; style
1½′—2′ in length.
A tree, occasionally 25° high, with a trunk often inclining, usually
much contorted, 2′—10′ in diameter and 6°—8° long, stout wide-spreading
branches, and stout branchlets, hoary-tomentose when they first appear,
marked by numerous small scattered lenticels, bright reddish brown
during two or three years, ultimately dark gray-brown and conspicuously
roughened by the enlarged ring-like leaf-scars. Bark light gray,
sometimes slightly broken by shallow fissures and marked by irregular
cream-colored blotches.
Distribution. Steep sides of a deep narrow arroyo on the south coast of
Santa Catalina Island, California.
2. Cercocarpus alnifolius Rydb.
_Cercocarpus parvifolius_ Sarg., in part, not Nutt.
[Illustration: Fig. 508]
Leaves occasionally persistent until late in the spring, oval to
slightly obovate, rounded or rarely acute at apex, rounded or cuneate at
base, and coarsely serrate above the middle with broad apiculate teeth,
when they unfold covered above with soft white hairs and pale and
villose on the midrib and veins below, and at maturity thick, glabrous,
dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale and yellow-green on
the lower surface, 1½′—2½′ long, and 1′—2′ wide, with a stout midrib and
6—7 pairs of slender prominent veins; petioles stout, sparingly villose
early in the season, soon glabrous, ⅓′—½′ long; stipules ovate, abruptly
long-pointed, covered with silky white hairs. Flowers on slender hairy
pedicels ⅓′—½′ long, in 2—15 usually 4 or 5-flowered clusters;
calyx-tube villose, about 5/12′ long, the limb villose on the outer
surface, ¼′ broad. Fruit: mature calyx-tube many-nerved, deeply cleft at
apex, villose-pubescent, dark chestnut-brown, ⅓′—½′ long; akene covered
with long silky hairs; style 2′—2½′ in length.
A tree, 12°—20° high, with one or two or three trunks, occasionally 8′
in diameter, small erect and spreading branches forming a narrow
round-topped head, and slender branchlets green and sparingly villose
when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, and in their second year
chestnut-brown and lustrous and marked by minute pale lenticels. Bark
about ¼′ thick, dark reddish brown, fissured and divided into small
closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Hillsides, Descanso Cañon, about a mile and a half up the
coast west of Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, and on Santa Cruz Island,
California.
3. Cercocarpus betuloides Nutt.
_Cercocarpus parvifolius_ var. _betuloides_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 509]
Leaves obovate to oval, acute or rounded at apex, cuneate at base,
finely serrate above the middle with straight or incurved glandular
teeth, dark green on the upper surface, pale and villose-pubescent or
tomentose sometimes becoming nearly glabrous on the lower surface,
1′—1¼′ long, and ⅓′—½′ wide, with a thin midrib, and 5—8 pairs of
slender primary veins more or less deeply impressed on the upper side of
the leaf; petioles densely villose, often becoming glabrous, about ¼′ in
length; stipules scarious, acuminate. Flowers nearly sessile, in
1—3-flowered clusters; calyx-tube densely villose, about ⅓′ long, the
limb turbinate, villose on the outer surface, glabrous on the inner
surface, ¼′ wide. Fruit on slender slightly villose pedicels ¼′—⅓′ in
length; mature calyx-tube often slightly gibbous, deeply cleft at apex,
light chestnut-brown, sparingly villose, 1/12′ in diameter; akene
covered with stiff spreading hairs; style 2′—3′ in length.
A tree, occasionally 25° high, with a single trunk, small ascending and
spreading branches forming an open irregular head, and slender red-brown
branchlets covered when they first appear with loose pubescence, soon
becoming glabrous; more often a tall or low shrub with several stems.
Bark smooth, separating into thin deciduous scales.
Distribution. Common and widely distributed over the California coast
ranges from Siskiyou County to the Santa Monica and San Bernardino
Mountains.
4. Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt.
[Illustration: Fig. 510]
Leaves narrow-lanceolate, lance-elliptic or oblanceolate, acute at the
ends, apiculate, entire with thick revolute margins, coriaceous,
reticulate-veined, puberulous while young, and at maturity dark green,
lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface and pale or rufous and
tomentulose on the lower surface, resinous, ½′—1′ long, and ⅓′—⅔′ wide,
with a broad thick midrib deeply grooved on the upper side, and obscure
primary veins; persistent until the end of their second summer; petioles
broad, about ⅛′ in length; stipules nearly triangular. Flowers solitary,
sessile in the axils of the clustered leaves, ⅔′ long; calyx
hoary-tomentose. Fruit: mature calyx-tube almost ½′ long, nearly
cylindric, rather larger above than below, 10-ribbed, obscurely
10-angled, slightly cleft at apex, hoary-tomentose; akene pointed at the
ends, obscurely angled, chestnut-brown, ¼′ long, covered with long pale
or tawny hairs; style 2′—3′ in length, generally contracted by 1 or 2
partial corkscrew twists.
A resinous slightly aromatic tree, occasionally 40° high, with a short
trunk sometimes 2½° in diameter, stout spreading usually contorted
branches forming a round compact head, and red-brown branchlets coated
at first with pale pubescence, soon becoming glabrous, frequently
covered with a glaucous bloom, silver gray or dark brown in their second
year, and for many years marked by the conspicuous elevated leaf-scars.
Bark red-brown, divided by deep broad furrows, and broken on the surface
into thin persistent plate-like scales, becoming on old trunks 1′ thick.
Wood bright clear red or rich dark brown, with thin yellow sapwood of
15—20 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Dry gravelly arid slopes at altitudes of 5000°—9000°;
mountain ranges of the interior region of the United States from eastern
Washington and Oregon, to lower Green and Snake River valleys, Wyoming,
and through Utah and Nevada to southwestern Colorado; in California to
the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, the northern slopes of the San
Bernardino Mountains, on Mt. Pinos, San Diego County, and on the
northern coast mountains (Snow Mountain to Scott Mountain, _Jepson_).
5. Cercocarpus paucidentatus Britt.
_Cercocarpus eximius_ Rydb.
[Illustration: Fig. 511]
Leaves oblong-obovate to narrow-elliptic, acute or rounded and often
apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed from above the middle and acute at
base, their margins revolute, often undulate, and entire or dentate
toward the apex with few small straight or incurved apiculate teeth,
when they unfold coated with hoary tomentum, and at maturity thick,
gray-green and covered with soft white hairs or nearly glabrous on the
upper surface, pale and tomentulose on the lower surface, ½′—1′ long and
¼′—½′ wide, with a thin prominent midrib and primary veins; petioles
stout, tomentose, ultimately pubescent or nearly glabrous, 1/16′—⅕′ in
length; stipules linear-lanceolate, tomentose, about half as long as the
petioles. Flowers appearing from March to May and often again in August,
nearly sessile, solitary, in pairs or rarely in 3-flowered clusters in
the axils of the crowded leaves; calyx-tube slender, ⅙′—¼′ long, thickly
covered on the outer surface, like the short rounded lobes, with long
white hairs. Fruit: mature calyx-tube short-stalked, light red-brown,
villose, deeply cleft at apex, about ¼′ long; akene nearly terete,
covered with long white hairs; style 1′—1½′ in length.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a long straight trunk sometimes 6′—8′ in
diameter, erect rigid branches forming a narrow open or irregular head,
and slender bright red-brown lustrous branchlets marked irregularly by
large scattered pale lenticels, covered at first with a thick coat of
hoary tomentum, villose or pubescent for two or three years and
ultimately ashy gray or gray tinged with red, the spur-like lateral
branchlets much roughened by the ring-like scars of fallen leaves. Bark
about ⅛′ thick, divided by shallow fissures and broken on the surface
into small light red-brown scales.
Distribution. In forests of Pines and Oaks usually at altitudes of about
5000°, on the dry ridges of the mountains of western Texas, and of
southern New Mexico and Arizona; in Arizona ranging northward to Oak
Creek Cañon, near Flagstaff, Coconino County (_P. Lowell_); and
southward over the mountains of northern Mexico.
10. PRUNUS B. & H. Plum and Cherry.
Trees or shrubs, with bitter astringent properties, slender branchlets,
marked by the usually small elevated horizontal leaf-scars with 2 or 3
fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and small scaly buds, their scales
imbricated in many rows, those of the inner rows accrescent and often
colored. Leaves convolute or conduplicate in the bud, alternate, simple,
usually serrate, petiolate, deciduous or persistent; stipules free from
the petiole, usually lanceolate and glandular, often minute, early
deciduous. Flowers in axillary umbels or corymbs, or in terminal or
axillary racemes, appearing from separate buds before, with, or later
than the leaves, or on leafy branches; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes
imbricated in the bud; disk thin, adnate to the calyx-tube, glandular,
often colored; petals 5, white, deciduous; stamens usually 15—20,
inserted with the petals in 3 rows, those of the outer row 10, opposite
the petals, those of the next row alternate with them and with those of
the inner row, sometimes 30 in 3 rows; filaments filiform, free,
incurved in the bud; anthers oval, attached on the back; ovary inserted
in the bottom of the calyx-tube, 1-celled; style terminal, dilated at
apex into a truncate stigma; ovules 2, suspended; raphe ventral; the
micropyle superior. Fruit a 1-seeded drupe; flesh thick and pulpy or dry
and coriaceous; stone bony, smooth, rugose, or pitted, compressed,
indehiscent. Seed filling the cavity of the nut, suspended; seed-coat
thin, membranaceous, pale brown; cotyledons thick and fleshy; radicle
superior.
Prunus with about one hundred and twenty species is generally
distributed over the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and
is abundant in North America, eastern Asia, western and central Asia and
central Europe, ranging southward in the New World into tropical
America, and to southern Asia in the Old World. Of the twenty-five or
thirty species which occur in the United States, twenty-two are
arborescent in habit. Several of the species bear fruits which are
important articles of human food; many contain in the seeds and leaves
hydrocyanic acid, to which is due their peculiar odor, and the fruit of
some of the species is used to flavor cordials. The wood of Prunus is
close-grained, solid, and durable, and a few of the species are
important timber-trees.
_Prunus_ is the classical name of the Plum-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers in sessile axillary umbels; fruit usually slightly 2-lobed by
a ventral groove, generally more than ½′ in diameter, red to
nearly black or yellow, often covered with a glaucous bloom.
Prunophora. Plums.
Leaves convolute in the bud, their petioles usually without glands.
Leaves broad-ovate to orbicular; fruit often 1′ or more in
diameter, red or yellow, nearly destitute of bloom.
1. P. subcordata (G).
Leaves ovate-lanceolate to oblong or obovate; fruit ½′ in diameter
or less, blue, nearly black, red or yellow, covered with a
glaucous bloom.
2. P. umbellata (C).
Leaves conduplicate in the bud.
Leaves dull dark green, usually abruptly pointed at apex.
Fruit red, rarely yellow, or blue in one form of 2 and 5; leaves
oblong to obovate; stone of the fruit compressed.
Leaves crennate-serrate, their petioles biglandular;
calyx-lobes glandular.
3. P. nigra (A).
Leaves sharply serrate with slender often apiculate teeth.
Leaves narrowed and usually cuneate at base.
Leaves glabrous or villose on the midrib below; petioles
and calyx-lobes usually without glands.
4. P. americana (A, C, F).
Leaves pubescent below; fruit covered with a thick
glaucous bloom.
Petioles eglandular or with a single gland near the
apex; pedicel of the flower glabrous; calyx-tube
puberulous; stone of the fruit rounded at base.
5. P. lanata (A, C).
Petioles glandular near the apex with 1—3 prominent
glands; pedicel of the flower furnished near the
apex, like the glabrous calyx-tube, with long
white hairs; stone of the fruit pointed at base.
6. P. tenuifolia (C).
Leaves usually broad and rounded at base, ovate to elliptic
or obovate, conspicuously reticulate-venulose;
petioles glandular.
7. P. mexicana (C).
Fruit purple, covered with a glaucous bloom; leaves lanceolate
to oblong-ovate; petioles and calyx-lobes without glands;
stone of the fruit turgid.
8. P. alleghaniensis (A).
Leaves thin and lustrous, acute or acuminate, narrowed at base;
petioles usually glandular; fruit red or yellow, the stone
turgid.
Calyx-lobes glandular.
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblong-oval or rarely
oblong-lanceolate.
9. P. hortulana (A).
Leaves elliptic to lanceolate.
10. P. Munsoniana (A, C).
Calyx-lobes without glands; leaves lanceolate to
oblong-lanceolate.
11. P. angustifolia (A, C).
Flowers in axillary umbels or corymbs; fruit bright red and lustrous,
½′ in diameter or less; leaves conduplicate in the bud. Mahaleb.
Bird Cherries.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or rarely acute at apex.
12. P. pennsylvanica (A, B, F).
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, usually obtuse, occasionally
acute at apex.
13. P. emarginata (B, F, G).
Flowers in terminal racemes on leafy branches of the year; fruit
globose, red or rarely yellow; leaves conduplicate in the bud.
Padus. Wild Cherries.
Calyx-lobes deciduous from the fruit; leaves oblong-oval or obovate,
abruptly pointed, cuneate, rounded or in one form cordate at
base.
14. P. virginiana (A, B, F, G).
Calyx-lobes persistent on the fruit.
Petioles biglandular near the apex.
Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, or
rarely pubescent on the midrib below.
15. P. serotina (A, C).
Leaves oval, broad-ovate or rarely obovate, acute, short-pointed
or rounded at apex, villose-pubescent below.
16. P. alabamensis (C).
Leaves obovate, oval or elliptic, short-pointed or rounded at
apex, covered below with rufous hairs.
17. P. australis (C).
Petioles without glands; leaves elliptic to ovate or slightly
obovate, acute, rounded or abruptly short-pointed at apex,
in one form rusty pubescent on the midrib below.
18. P. virens (E, F, H).
Flowers in racemes from the axils of persistent leaves of the previous
year; fruit globose or slightly three-lobed; leaves conduplicate
in the bud. Laurocerasus. Cherry Laurels.
Calyx-lobes rounded, undulate on the margins; leaves
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, entire or rarely remotely
spinulose-serrate; fruit black, the stone broad-ovoid, acute,
cylindric.
19. P. caroliniana (C).
Calyx-lobes acute, minute.
Leaves elliptic to oblong-ovate, entire; fruit orange-brown, the
stone subglobose.
20. P. myrtifolia (D).
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, rounded or emarginate at
apex, conspicuously spinulose-dentate; fruit red, becoming
purple or nearly black, the stone ovoid, short-pointed.
21. P. ilicifolia (G).
Leaves ovate to lanceolate, acuminate or abruptly short-pointed at
apex, usually entire; fruit dark purple or nearly black, the
stone ovoid to obovoid, short-pointed.
22. P. Lyonii (G).
1. Prunus subcordata Benth. Wild Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 512]
Leaves broad-ovate or orbicular, usually cordate, sometimes truncate or
rarely cuneate at base, and sharply often doubly serrate, when they
unfold puberulous on the upper surface and pubescent on the lower
surface, and at maturity glabrous, or puberulous below, slightly
coriaceous, dark green above and pale below, 1′—3′ long and ½′—2′ wide,
with a broad midrib and conspicuous veins; northward turning brilliant
scarlet and orange or red and yellow in the autumn before falling;
petioles slender, usually eglandular, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules
lanceolate, acute, glandular-serrate. Flowers appearing before the
leaves in March and April, ⅔′ in diameter, on slender glabrous or
pubescent pedicels ¼′—½′ long, in 2—4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube
campanulate, glabrous or puberulous, the lobes oblong-obovate, rounded
at apex, pubescent on the outer surface, more or less clothed with pale
hairs on the inner surface, half as long as the obovate white petals
rounded above and narrowed below into a short claw. Fruit ripening in
August and September, on stout pedicels ½′—⅔′ long; short-oblong, ½′—1¼′
long, with dark red or sometimes bright yellow skin, and more or less
subacid flesh; stone flattened or turgid, acute at the ends, ⅓′—1′ long,
narrowly wing-margined on the ventral suture, conspicuously grooved on
the dorsal suture.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk sometimes a foot in diameter,
dividing 6°—8° from the ground into stout almost horizontal branches,
and glabrous or pubescent bright red more or less spinescent branchlets
marked by occasional minute pale lenticels, becoming darker red or
purple in their second year, and ultimately dark brown or ashy gray; or
often a bush, with stout ascending stems 10°—12° tall, or a low
much-branched shrub. Winter-buds acute, ⅛′ long, with chestnut-brown
scales, scarious on the margins, those of the inner rows ¼′ long at
maturity, oblong, acute, and generally bright red. Bark about ¼′ thick,
gray-brown, deeply fissured, and divided into long thick plates broken
on the surface into minute persistent scales. Wood heavy, hard,
close-grained, pale brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 5 or 6
layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Dry rocky hills and open woods usually in the neighborhood
of streams, sometimes forming thickets of considerable extent; central
Oregon to northeastern California in the region east of the Cascade and
Sierra Nevada Mountains, and common to central California; on the
foothills of the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada up to altitudes of
4000° south to the Yosemite Valley, and on the coast ranges to Black
Mountain, Santa Clara County; of its largest size on the borders of
small streams in southern Oregon and northern California; at high
altitudes, and in the arid regions of southeastern Oregon a low shrub
producing sparingly small sometimes pubescent fruit (var. _oregona_
Wight); Klamath Indian Reservation, near Klamath Falls and in Sprague
River Valley, Klamath County.
2. Prunus umbellata Ell. Sloe. Black Sloe.
[Illustration: Fig. 513]
Leaves obovate-lanceolate to oblong, acute at the ends or sometimes
rounded or slightly cordate at base, finely and sharply serrate with
remote incurved glandular teeth, and usually furnished with 2 large dark
glands at the base, when they unfold bright bronze-green, with red
margins, midrib, and petiole, glabrous above and pubescent or glabrous
below with the exception of a few hairs along the prominent
orange-colored midrib and primary veins, and at maturity thin, dark
green above, paler below, 2′—2½′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, petioles stout,
glabrous or pubescent, about ⅓′ in length; stipules lanceolate,
setaceous, glandular-serrate, ¼′—⅔′ long. Flowers opening in March and
April before the appearance of the leaves, ⅔′ in diameter, on slender
glabrous pedicels ½′ long, in 3 or 4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube
broad-obconic, glabrous or puberulous, the lobes sometimes slightly
clavate at the acute red apex, scarious on the margins, and
hoary-tomentose on the inner surface; petals nearly orbicular,
contracted at the base into a short claw. Fruit ripening from July to
September, on slender stems ½′ to nearly 1′ long, globose, without a
basal depression, about ½′ in diameter, with a tough thick black or on
some individuals yellow, and on others bright red skin covered with a
glaucous bloom, and thick acid flesh; stone flattened with thin brittle
walls, ½′ long, ¼′—5/16′ wide and half as thick, acute at the ends,
slightly rugose, conspicuously ridged on the ventral suture, and
slightly grooved on the dorsal suture.
A tree, sometimes 15°—20° high, with a short often crooked or inclining
trunk 6′—10′ in diameter, slender unarmed branches forming a wide
compact flat-topped head, and slender branchlets more or less densely
coated at first with pale pubescence, soon becoming glabrous, lustrous
and bright red, and in their second year dark dull brown and marked by
occasional orange-colored oblong lenticels; or frequently a low shrub.
Winter-buds about 1/16′ long, with acute chestnut-brown apiculate
scales, those of the inner rows at maturity ¼′ long and red at the apex.
Bark ¼′ thick, dark brown, separating into small appressed persistent
scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, dark reddish brown, with thick
lighter colored sapwood of about 30 layers of annual growth. The fruit
is used in large quantities in making jellies and jams.
Distribution. Stanly County (near Albemarle, _J. S. Holmes_), North
Carolina, and South Carolina southward, usually in the neighborhood of
the coast, to Orange County, Florida, and westward to eastern Texas and
southern Arkansas. The form with red fruit common in the interior of the
Florida peninsula (Orange County). Variable in the amount of its
pubescence and slightly variable in the shape of the fruit, and passing
into var. _injucunda_ Sarg. (_Prunus mitis_ Beadl.). A small tree with
branchlets hoary tomentose when they first appear, becoming pubescent,
and puberulous in their second season, leaves more or less tomentose
below, villose pedicels, calyx and ovary, and subglobose to short-oblong
fruit. Central and southern Georgia (base of Stone Mountain and Little
Stone Mountain, De Kalb County, and near Augusta, Richmond County), and
eastern Alabama (near Auburn, Lee County). More distinct is
Prunus umbellata var. tarda Wight
_Prunus tarda_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 514]
Differing from the type in the more oblong stone of the later-ripening
fruit, lighter-colored bark and larger size.
Leaves oblong or oval, or occasionally obovate, acute or acuminate and
short-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, and
finely serrate with straight or incurved teeth tipped with dark minute
persistent glands, when they unfold glabrous or rarely scabrous or
puberulous above and cinereo-tomentose below, and at maturity thick and
firm, dark yellow-green and glabrous on the upper surface, pale and
pubescent or puberulous on the lower surface, especially along the
prominent light yellow midrib and thin primary veins, 1½′—3′ long and
¾′—1¼′ wide; petioles stout, tomentose or ultimately pubescent, ⅓′—½′ in
length, glandular at apex with 2 large round stalked dark glands, or
often eglandular; stipules acicular, often bright red, about ⅓′ long.
Flowers appearing early in April with or before the leaves, about ¾′ in
diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in 2 or 3-flowered umbels;
calyx-tube narrow-obconic, glabrous toward the base, villose above, the
lobes acute, entire, villose on the outer surface, hoary-tomentose on
the inner surface; petals oblong-obovate, gradually contracted below
into a short claw. Fruit ripening late in October or early in November,
on stout rigid pedicels, short-oblong to subglobose, ⅓′—½′ long, clear
bright yellow on some trees, bright red on others, and on others purple,
dark blue, or black, with tough thick skin, and thick very acid flesh;
stone ovoid more or less compressed, very rugose, obscurely ridged on
the ventral suture and slightly grooved on the dorsal suture, acute and
apiculate at apex, and rounded at base.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with a tall trunk 18′—20′ in diameter,
wide-spreading branches forming an open symmetrical head, and slender
branchlets marked by small scattered dark lenticels, light-green and
hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming glabrous, light
red-brown and lustrous during their first summer and darker at the end
of their second year. Winter-buds narrow, acute, the color of the
branchlets, 1/16′—⅛′ long. Bark ½′—⅝′ thick, light brown tinged with
red, and divided by shallow interrupted fissures into flat ridges broken
on the surface into small loose plate-like scales.
Distribution. Glades and open woods in the neighborhood of Marshall,
Harrison County, Texas, to western Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and
western Mississippi.
3. Prunus nigra Ait. Red Plum. Canada Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 515]
Leaves oblong-ovate to obovate, abruptly contracted at apex into a long
narrow point, cuneate, truncate or slightly cordate at base, and doubly
crenate-serrate with small dark glandular teeth, when they unfold
faintly tinged with red and pubescent on the under surface or glabrous
with the exception of conspicuous tufts of slender white or rufous hairs
in the axils of the primary veins, and at maturity thick and firm, dull
dark green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 3′—5′ long
and 1½′—3′ wide, with a conspicuous pale midrib and slender veins;
petioles stout, biglandular at apex with 2 large dark glands, ½′—1′ in
length; stipules lanceolate or on vigorous shoots often 3—5-lobed,
glandular-serrate, ½′ long. Flowers appearing in early spring with or
before the leaves, 1¼′ in diameter, on slender glabrous dark red
pedicels, ½′—⅔′ long, in 3 or 4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube
broad-obconic, dark red on the outer surface, bright red on the inner
surface, the lobes narrow, acute, glandular, glabrous or occasionally
pubescent on the outer surface, reflexed after the flowers open; petals
broad-ovate, rounded at apex, more or less erose on the margins,
contracted at base into a short claw, white, turning pink in fading.
Fruit ripening from the middle to the end of August, oblong-oval, 1′—1¼′
long, with a tough thick orange-red skin nearly destitute of bloom, and
yellow rather austere flesh; stone oval, compressed, 1′ long, ⅔′ wide,
thick-walled, acutely ridged on the ventral suture and slightly grooved
on the dorsal suture.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk sometimes 8′—10′ in diameter, divided
usually 5°—6° from the ground into a number of stout upright branches
forming a narrow rigid head, stout slightly zigzag branchlets marked by
numerous pale excrescences, bright green, glabrous or puberulous at
first, and dark brown tinged with red in their second season, and stout
spiny lateral spur-like secondary branchlets. Winter-buds acuminate,
⅛′—¼′ long, with chestnut-brown, triangular scales pale and scarious on
the margins. Bark about ⅛′ thick, light gray-brown, with a smooth outer
layer exfoliating in large thick plates of several papery layers, and in
falling exposing the darker slightly fissured scaly inner bark. Wood
heavy, hard, close-grained, rich bright red-brown, with thin lighter
colored sapwood.
Distribution. In the alluvial soil of river valleys and on limestone
hills; western New Brunswick (near the mouth of the Aroostook River) to
the valley of the Saint Lawrence River and westward to the southern
shore of Georgian Bay, the northern shore of Lake Superior (west of Port
Arthur, Ontario), the valley of the Winnipeg River, Manitoba, and
southward to northern New England, central and western New York,
northern Ohio (Lorraine County), southern Michigan, northeastern
Illinois, southeastern and western Wisconsin (valley of the Wisconsin
River), eastern Minnesota and North Dakota.
Often cultivated in Canadian gardens and occasionally in those of the
northern states as a fruit-tree or for the beauty of its flowers.
Varieties are propagated by pomologists.
4. Prunus americana Marsh. Wild Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 516]
Leaves oval to oblong-oval or slightly obovate, acuminate at apex,
narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, and sharply often doubly
serrate with slender apiculate teeth, when they unfold glabrous or
slightly pubescent, and often furnished below with conspicuous axillary
tufts of pale hairs, and at maturity thick and firm, more or less
rugose, dark green on the upper surface, pale and glabrous on the lower
surface, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—1¾′ wide, with a thin midrib glabrous or
villose-pubescent on the lower side, and slender primary veins; petioles
slender, eglandular or furnished near the apex with one or two glands,
glabrous or puberulous, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers appearing in early
spring before or with the unfolding of the leaves, 1′ in diameter,
bad-smelling, on slender glabrous pedicels ⅓′—⅔′ long, in 2—5-flowered
umbels; calyx-tube narrow-obconic, bright red, glabrous or puberulous,
green on the inner surface, the lobes lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate,
obtuse or acute, eglandular or obscurely glandular above the middle,
usually dentate toward the apex, glabrous or puberulous on the outer
surface, soft-pubescent on the inner surface; petals rounded and
irregularly laciniate at apex, contracted below into a long narrow claw,
bright red at base, ½′ long and ¼′ wide. Fruit ripening in June at the
south and from the middle of August to early October at the north,
subglobose or slightly elongated, usually rather less than 1′ in
diameter, in ripening turning from green to orange often with a red
cheek, becoming bright red when fully ripe, usually destitute of bloom
and more or less conspicuously marked by pale spots, with a thick tough
acerb skin and bright yellow succulent rather juicy acid flesh; stone
oval slightly rugose rounded at apex, more or less narrowed at base,
¾′—1′ long and ⅖′—⅗′ wide, often as thick as broad, slightly and acutely
ridged on the ventral suture and obscurely grooved on the dorsal suture.
A tree 20°—35° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 1° in diameter and
dividing usually 4° or 5° from the ground into many spreading branches
often pendulous at the end and forming a broad graceful head and slender
glabrous branchlets at first bright green, light orange-brown during
their first winter, becoming darker and often tinged with red and marked
by minute circular raised lenticels, and furnished with long slender
remote sometimes spinescent lateral branchlets; usually spreading by
shoots from the roots into broad thickets, or in the Gulf States growing
with a single stem. Winter-buds acute, ⅛′—¼′ long, the chestnut-brown
scales more or less erose on the margins, the inner scales when fully
grown foliaceous, ½′ long, oblong, acute, remotely serrate, with 2
narrow acuminate lateral lobes. Bark about ½′ thick, dark brown tinged
with red, the outer layer separating into long thin persistent plates,
southward often lighter-colored. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained,
strong, dark rich brown tinged with red, with thin lighter-colored
sapwood. The fruit is sometimes used in the preparation of jellies and
preserves, and is eaten raw or cooked.
Distribution. In the middle and northern states in rich soil, growing
along the borders of streams and swamps; in the south Atlantic states
often in river swamps; west of the Mississippi on bottom-lands, dry
uplands and low mountain slopes; western Connecticut (Gaylordsville,
Litchfield County), Eastern Greenbush, Rensselaer County and central New
York to southern Ontario, central Michigan and northern Indiana, and
northwestward to North Dakota, Manitoba (near Brandon), the Bitter Root
Mountains, Wyoming and western Montana (Dixon, Sanders County), and
southward to western Florida, central Mississippi, Alabama, eastern
Louisiana, Missouri, southern Arkansas, eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, and
in the Rocky Mountain region along the eastern foothills of Colorado to
northern New Mexico (near Las Vegas, San Miguel County); and
northeastern Utah (near Logan, Cache County); on the southern
Appalachian Mountains ascending to altitudes of 3000°, and in South
Carolina and Georgia extending to the immediate neighborhood of the
coast; in the Rocky Mountain region usually a low shrub forming large
thickets. Passing into the var. _floridana_ Sarg., differing in its much
thinner finely serrate leaves and purple fruit. A small tree without
root suckers; low rich woods near St. Marks, Wakulla County, western
Florida; common.
5. Prunus lanata Mack. & Bush.
_Prunus americana lanata_ Sudw.
_Prunus Palmeri_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 517]
Leaves ovate to oblong-obovate, elliptic or rarely slightly obovate,
abruptly acuminate and long-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and
cuneate or rarely rounded at base, and coarsely often doubly serrate
with apiculate spreading teeth, when they unfold sparingly covered above
by short caducous hairs and below by long white spreading hairs, and at
maturity thin, light yellow-green and glabrous on the upper surface,
pale and more or less densely covered below with close soft pubescence
at the south often becoming fuscous late in the season, and villose on
the midrib and primary veins, 2½′—4′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide; petioles
slender, pubescent, eglandular or furnished with a gland near the apex,
½′—⅔′ in length, stipules linear, acuminate, occasionally 3-lobed,
villose, sparingly glandular. Flowers about ¾′ in diameter, on slender
glabrous pedicels ½′—⅔′ in length, in 2—5-flowered umbels; calyx-tube
narrow-obconic, puberulous, the lobes long, acuminate, entire or rarely
slightly serrate toward the apex, ciliate on the margins, puberulous and
more or less tinged with red on the outer surface, pubescent on the
inner surface; petals oblong-oval, narrowed and rounded at apex,
gradually narrowed below into a long claw, about ¼′ wide; stamens about
25; style elongated, exceeding the stamens. Fruit on drooping glabrous
pedicels, ellipsoid, deep crimson covered with a glaucous bloom, often
1′ long and ⅘′ in diameter, with thick succulent flesh; stone oblong,
compressed, rounded at base, pointed and apiculate at apex, ridged on
the dorsal edge with a thin narrow ridge, thin and slightly grooved on
the ventral edge.
A tree 20°—30° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, small erect
branches and slender unarmed branchlets light yellow-green and
puberulous or pubescent when they first appear, usually becoming
glabrous before the end of their first season, light orange-brown during
their first season and dark red-brown the following year; sometimes a
shrub only a few feet tall; usually growing with a single well-developed
trunk; occasionally spreading by suckers from the roots into small
thickets. Winter-buds acute, ⅛′—⅙′ long, with light chestnut-brown
puberulous scales ciliate on the margins. Bark pale gray-brown,
exfoliating in large thin scales.
Distribution. Hillsides and river-bottom lands; southern Indiana (near
Columbus, Bartholomew County, and Gordon Hills, Gibson County), through
southern Illinois (Gallatin, Pope, Richland and Johnson Counties) to
western Kentucky (Ballard and Hickman Counties); through Missouri and
Arkansas to eastern Oklahoma, western Louisiana and eastern Texas to
Wilson County (Southerland Springs); through eastern Louisiana (West
Feliciana and Tammany Parishes), and near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama.
6. Prunus tenuifolia Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 518]
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate or elliptic, gradually narrowed and
acute or acuminate and often abruptly long-pointed at apex, cuneate or
often narrowed and rounded at base, finely doubly serrate with teeth
pointing to the apex of the leaf, at maturity thin, dark yellow-green
and sparingly covered above with short soft white hairs, paler and soft
pubescent below, especially on the slender midrib, and 7 or 8 pairs of
thin primary veins connected by occasional cross veinlets, 3′—4′ long
and 1¼′—2′ wide; petioles slender, pubescent, becoming puberulous or
nearly glabrous, glandular near the apex with 1—3 prominent dark glands,
or eglandular. Flowers ⅘′ in diameter, opening from the middle to the
end of March, on slender pedicels ⅖′—⅘′ long, furnished near the apex
with a few long white hairs, in 2—4-flowered sessile umbels; calyx-tube
narrow-obconic, glabrous with the exception of occasional long scattered
white hairs near the base, the lobes narrow, entire, or minutely dentate
near the rounded apex, ciliate on the margins, pubescent on the outer
surface, densely villose on the inner surface, reflexed after anthesis;
petals white, ovate-oblong, narrowed and rounded at apex, crenulate
above the middle, gradually narrowed below into a short claw. Fruit on
stout slightly hairy or glabrous stems, oblong to oblong-obovoid, red,
covered with a thick glaucous bloom, ⅗′—¾′ long and ½′—⅗′ in diameter,
with a thick skin and thin flesh; stone oblong, compressed, pointed at
the ends, slightly sulcate at apex, unsymmetric, ridged on the full and
rounded dorsal edge with a broad thin ridge, thin nearly straight and
only slightly grooved on the ventral edge, ⅖′—⅗′ long and about ½′ wide.
A tree 30° high, with a tall trunk usually about 12′ but occasionally
18′ in diameter, stout spreading branches and stout or slender glabrous
branchlets light orange green when they first appear, becoming light
gray or red-brown and lustrous at the end of their first season, and
dark dull red-brown the following year. Bark of the trunk and large
branches thick, pale gray, and broken into long plate-like scales.
Distribution. Dry Oak-woods near Jacksonville and Larissa, Cherokee
County, Texas.
7. Prunus mexicana S. Wats. Big Tree Plum.
_Prunus arkansana_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 519]
Leaves ovate to elliptic or obovate, abruptly long-pointed and acuminate
at apex, rounded or rarely cuneate and often glandular at base, and
finely doubly serrate with apiculate slender straight or slightly
incurved teeth, at maturity thick, dark yellow-green, glabrous and
lustrous on the upper surface, paler and sparingly covered on the lower
surface with long soft white hairs most abundant on the prominent midrib
and primary veins and on the numerous conspicuous reticulate veinlets,
1¾′—3¼′ long and 1¼′—2′ wide; petioles stout, pubescent or puberulous,
glandular at apex with large dark glands, or eglandular, ⅖′—⅗′ in
length. Flowers appearing in March before the leaves, 1′ in diameter, on
slender glabrous pedicels in 3 or 4-flowered sessile umbels; calyx-tube
narrow-obconic, glabrous, the lobes oblong or oblong-ovate, about as
long as the tube, rounded and laciniate at apex or entire, ciliate and
glandular on the margins with small sessile glands, puberulous on the
outer surface, hoary-tomentose on the inner surface, reflexed after
anthesis; petals sometimes puberulous on the outer surface toward the
base, ovate-orbicular to oblong-ovate, rounded at the narrow apex,
crenulate, abruptly or gradually narrowed below into a short claw, about
3 times as long as the calyx-lobes; style longer than the stamens. Fruit
ripening from the end of August to early October, subglobose to
short-oblong, rounded at the ends, dark purple-red with a slight
glaucous bloom, 1¼′—1⅓′ long and 1′—1¼′ in diameter, with thick
succulent flesh; stone smooth obovoid to nearly circular, turgid,
unsymmetric, narrowed and rounded at base, rounded or short-pointed at
apex, ridged on the rounded dorsal edge with a broad thin ridge, thin,
less rounded and grooved on the ventral edge, ¾′—1′ long and about ½′
wide.
A tree from 20°—25° high, with a trunk sometimes 8′—10′ in diameter,
stout branches forming an open irregular head, and slender glabrous
branchlets light orange-brown, very lustrous and marked by dark
lenticels during their first winter and dull gray-brown the following
year. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, glabrous, ¼′ long. Bark dark, nearly
black or light gray, exfoliating in plate-like scales on young stems and
large branches, becoming rough and deeply furrowed on old trunks.
Distribution. Open woods on rich alluvial bottom-lands, upland prairies
and hillsides; southeastern Kansas (near Parsons, Labette County),
through Arkansas to western Oklahoma (Navina, Logan County, Minca, Grady
County), western Louisiana, northern and eastern Texas to the valley of
the San Antonio River, ranging westward in Texas over the Edwards
Plateau and to Brown and Palo Pinto Counties; in West Feliciana Parish,
eastern Louisiana; in Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.
Passing into the following varieties:
Prunus mexicana var. reticulata Sarg. Differing in its thicker leaves
more often narrowed at base, with more prominent reticulate veinlets,
pubescent pedicels, globose fruit ripening late in September or in
October, with thin, bitter, astringent flesh and dark deeply furrowed
bark.
Distribution. Uplands and along the margins of river bottoms;
neighborhood of Denison and Sherman, Grayson County, northern Texas.
Prunus mexicana var. polyandra Sarg.
Differing in the narrowed base of the leaves, the more numerous stamens,
in its earlier ripening fruit, with an obovoid compressed stone pointed
at apex and gradually narrowed and acute at base.
Distribution. Rich woods near Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas.
Prunus mexicana var. fultonensis Sarg.
Differing in its thinner leaves pubescent below over the whole surface,
and in its smaller dark bluish-purple fruit, ripening in June, with thin
flesh and a compressed stone pointed at apex and gradually narrowed and
acute at base.
Distribution. Rich woods near Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas.
8. Prunus alleghaniensis Porter. Sloe.
[Illustration: Fig. 520]
Leaves lanceolate to oblong-ovate, often long-pointed, finely and
sharply serrate with glandular teeth, and furnished at base with 2 large
rather conspicuous glands, when they unfold covered with soft
pubescence, and at maturity puberulous on the upper surface, and
glabrous with the exception of a few hairs in the axils of the veins, or
covered, especially along the broad midrib and conspicuous veins, with
rufous pubescence on the lower surface, rather thick and firm in
texture, dark green above and paler below, 2′—3½′ long and ⅔′—1¼′ wide;
petioles slender, grooved, pubescent or puberulous, ¼′—⅓′ in length.
Flowers appearing in May with the unfolding of the leaves, ½′ in
diameter, on slender puberulous pedicels ½′—⅔′ long, in 2—4-flowered
umbels; calyx-tube narrow-obconic, pubescent or puberulous on the outer
surface, the lobes ovate-oblong, rounded at apex, scarious on the
margins, and coated with pale tomentum on the inner surface; petals
rounded at apex, contracted at base into a short claw, turning pink in
fading. Fruit ripening the middle of August, on stout puberulous
pedicels, subglobose or slightly oval to obovoid, ⅓′—⅔′ in diameter,
with thick rather tough dark reddish-purple skin covered with a glaucous
bloom, and yellow juicy austere flesh; stone thin-walled, turgid, two
thirds as thick as broad, ¼′—½′ long, pointed at the ends, ridged on the
ventral suture, and slightly grooved on the dorsal suture.
A slender tree, occasionally 18°—20° high, with a trunk sometimes 6′—8′
in diameter, dividing into numerous erect rigid branches, and branchlets
at first coated with pale caducous pubescence, becoming dark red and
rather lustrous in their first winter, and ultimately nearly black, and
unarmed, or sometimes armed with stout spinescent lateral spur-like
branchlets. Winter-buds acuminate or obtuse, 1/16′ long, their inner
scales accrescent, scarious, oblong, acute, ⅔′ long, bright red at apex.
Bark ¼′ thick, dark brown, fissured and broken on the surface into thin
persistent scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, brown tinged with
red, with thin pale sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth. The fruit
is made into preserves, jellies and jams.
Distribution. Low moist soil, often forming shrubby thickets sometimes
of considerable extent, and dry ridges; slopes of Tusseys Mountain in
the northwestern part of Huntingdon County, and over the main range of
the Alleghany Mountains into Clearfield and Elk Counties, Pennsylvania;
rocky ridges near the Natural Bridge, Rockbridge County, Virginia, and
lower slopes of Peak Mountain on South Fork of Buffalo Creek, Ashe
County, North Carolina (_W. W. Ashe_), and in southern Connecticut; of
its largest size on limestone bluffs south of the Little Juniata River,
Pennsylvania. A shrubby variety with leaves broader in proportion to
their length and less acuminate at apex (var. _Davisii_ Wight) occurs in
Roscommon and Montmorency Counties, Michigan.
9. Prunus hortulana Bailey. Wild Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 521]
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblong-oval or rarely to oblong-lanceolate,
acuminate and contracted at apex into a long slender point, cuneate or
more or less rounded at the narrow base, and finely serrate with
incurved lanceolate glandular teeth, when they unfold pilose with
slender white hairs, and at maturity glabrous above, pilose below in the
axils of the primary veins and along the midrib with tawny hairs, thin
but firm, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface paler on the
lower surface, 4′—6′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a broad conspicuous
orange-colored midrib, primary veins connected near the margins of the
leaf, and prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles slender,
orange-colored, 1′—1½′ in length and furnished above the middle with
numerous scattered dark glands; stipules lanceolate, acuminate,
glandular-serrate, early deciduous. Flowers appearing in April or early
in May when the leaves are about one-third grown, ⅔′—1′ in diameter, on
slender puberulous pedicels ½′ long, in 2—4-flowered umbels; calyx-tube
narrow-obconic, the lobes about as long as the tube, oblong-ovate, acute
or rounded at apex, glandular-serrate, glabrous or puberulous on the
outer surface, pubescent or tomentose on the inner surface chiefly
toward the base, reflexed after the unfolding of the narrow oval or
oblong-orbicular petals rounded and occasionally emarginate at apex,
contracted below into a long narrow claw, entire, erose, or occasionally
serrate, and white often marked with orange toward the base. Fruit
ripening in September and October, on stout stems, globose or rarely
ellipsoid, ¾′—1′ in diameter, with thick deep red or sometimes yellow
lustrous skin, and hard austere thin flesh; stone turgid, ⅔′—¾′ long,
compressed at the ends, abruptly short-pointed or rounded at apex,
rounded or truncate at base, conspicuously ridge-margined on the ventral
suture and broadly and deeply grooved on the dorsal suture,
thick-walled, usually conspicuously or rarely obscurely rugose and
pitted.
A tree 20°—30° high, without suckers from the roots, with a slender
often inclining trunk, frequently 5′—6′ or occasionally 10′—12′ in
diameter, dividing usually several feet above the ground into thick
spreading branches forming a broad round-topped head, and stout rigid
branchlets marked by minute pale lenticels, glabrous or slightly
puberulous during their first summer, rather dark red-brown, and usually
unarmed or on vigorous trees armed with stout spinescent lateral
chestnut-colored branchlets; or often a shrub, with many stems forming
thicket-like clumps. Winter-buds minute, obtuse, with chestnut-brown
scales slightly ciliate on the margins, those of the inner ranks
becoming oblong-lanceolate, acute, glandular-serrate, sometimes ½′ in
length. Bark thin, dark brown, separating into large thin persistent
plates, and displaying the light brown inner layers.
Distribution. Low banks of streams in rich moist soil; southwestern
Illinois to Scott County, Iowa, and to eastern Kansas and northeastern
Oklahoma, and to central Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee; most
abundant and of its largest size in Missouri. The handsomest of American
Plum-trees, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts. Several
selected forms are grown and valued by pomologists. Passing into var.
_Mineri_ Bailey, with darker green duller leaves, and sometimes more
scaly bark. Southwestern Illinois to central Missouri; and into var.
_pubens_ Sarg. differing from the type in its pubescent leaves, petioles
and young branchlets. In the neighborhood of Webb City, Jasper County,
Missouri.
Often cultivated by pomologists in many selected forms.
10. Prunus Munsoniana Wight & Hedrick
[Illustration: Fig. 522]
Leaves elliptic to lanceolate, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually
narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base and finely glandular-serrate,
when they unfold densely villose-pubescent above and glabrous below, and
at maturity thin, light green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on
the lower surface, 2½′—4′ long and ¾′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib
often red and usually pubescent or sparingly villose on the lower side,
and slender primary veins often furnished with small axillary clusters
of white hairs; petioles slender, usually biglandular toward the apex,
the groove on the upper side covered with white pubescence, often bright
red, ¾′ in length; stipules linear, glandular-serrate. Flowers appearing
in Texas before the leaves at the end of March and as late as May after
the appearance of the leaves at the northern limits of its range, ½′—⅗′
in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels ⅖′—1′ long, in 2—4-flowered
umbel-like clusters; calyx-tube broad-obconic, glabrous, obscurely
nerved, the lobes ovate, acute or acuminate, minutely glandular-serrate,
glabrous or rarely slightly pubescent on the outer surface, pubescent on
the inner surface below the middle; petals about ¼′ long, obovate to
oblong-obovate, entire or sparingly erose, white, about ¼′ long,
abruptly contracted into a short claw. Fruit ripening in July and
August, subglobose to short-oblong, ¾′ long, bright red with a slight
bloom, marked by pale dots and occasionally by yellow blotches, rarely
yellow, with a thin skin and light or dark yellow juicy aromatic fibrous
flesh often of good quality; stone oval, compressed, pointed at apex,
truncate or obliquely truncate at base, thick-margined and grooved on
the ventral suture, grooved on the dorsal suture, irregularly roughened
on the surface, about ½′ long.
A tree spreading into dense thickets, the oldest central stem sometimes
20° high and 5′ or 6′ in diameter, diminishing in height and size to the
margin of the thicket, with erect, rarely slightly spinescent branches,
and slender glabrous red-brown lustrous branchlets marked by numerous
pale lenticels. Winter-buds obtuse, chestnut brown, glabrous, rarely
more than ⅛′ long. Bark thin, usually smooth and reddish or
chestnut-brown on young stems, becoming gray or grayish brown and
separating into thin plate-like scales on older trunks.
Distribution. Usually in rich soil; southern Illinois (Alexander,
Gallatin, Pope, Johnson and Richland Counties); southwestern Kentucky;
central Tennessee; northern Mississippi; central Missouri to
southeastern Kansas, and through Arkansas to eastern Oklahoma, western
Louisiana (Natchitoches and Lincoln Parishes), and northern Texas (west
to Clay and Lampasas Counties); now occasionally naturalized from
cultivated trees in eastern Texas, and eastward to Georgia, eastern
Kentucky, southern Ohio, and in northern Missouri. Hardy in eastern
Massachusetts and western New York.
Cultivated in orchards, a tree sometimes 20°—30° tall with a trunk 6′—8′
in diameter, and rather small wide-spreading branches forming a handsome
round-topped head. Selected forms of the wild plants are valued by
pomologists who have produced several hybrids by crossing _Prunus
Munsoniana_ with other American and with Old World species. The “Wild
Goose Plum,” one of the best known forms of _Prunus Munsoniana_, has
flowered and produced fruit for many years in the Arnold Arboretum.
11. Prunus angustifolia Marsh. Chickasaw Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 523]
Leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, pointed at the ends, apiculate
at apex, and sharply serrate with minute glandular teeth, glabrous or at
first sometimes furnished with axillary tufts of long pale hairs, bright
green and lustrous on the upper, paler and rather dull on the lower
surface, 1′—2′ long and ⅓′—⅔′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous or
puberulous, biglandular near the apex with 2 conspicuous red glands,
bright red, ¼′—½′ in length; stipules linear or lobed,
glandular-serrate, ½′ long. Flowers appearing before the leaves from the
beginning of March at the south to the middle of April at the north, ⅓′
in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels ¼′—½′ long, in 2—4-flowered
umbels; calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous, the lobes oblong, obtuse,
entire ciliate on the margins with slender hairs, pale-pubescent on the
inner surface, reflexed at maturity; petals obovate, rounded at apex,
contracted at base into a short broad claw, white or creamy white. Fruit
ripening between the end of May and the end of July, globose or
subglobose, about ½′ in diameter, bright red or yellow, rather lustrous,
nearly destitute of bloom, with a thin skin, and juicy subacid flesh;
stone turgid, rugose, compressed at the ends, nearly ½′ long, more or
less thick-margined on the ventral suture and grooved on the dorsal
suture.
A tree, 15°—25° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 8′ in diameter,
slender spreading branches, and bright red and lustrous branchlets
glabrous or covered at first with short caducous hairs, becoming in
their second year dull, darker and often brown, marked with occasional
horizontal orange-colored lenticels, and frequently armed with long thin
spinescent lateral branchlets; spreading into thickets. Winter-buds
acuminate, 1/16′ long, with chestnut-brown scales. Bark about ⅛′ thick,
dark reddish brown and slightly furrowed, the surface broken into long
thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, although rather soft, not strong,
light brownish red with lighter colored sapwood. The fruit is often sold
in the markets of the middle and southern states.
Distribution. Widely naturalized especially in the south Atlantic and
Gulf states from southern Delaware and Kentucky to central Florida and
eastern Texas, occupying the margins of fields and other waste places
near human habitations usually in rich soil; probably native in central
Texas and Oklahoma. Passing into var. _varians_ Wight & Hedrick,
differing from the type in its usually larger leaves occasionally up to
2½′ in length and to 1′ in width, in the longer pedicels of the flowers
and in the ovoid to ellipsoid often pointed stone of the red or yellow
later ripening fruit. A tree usually spreading into thickets,
occasionally 12° high with a trunk 4′ or 5′ in diameter, small branches
and slender often spinescent chestnut-brown branchlets. Usually in
richer soil than the type, southwestern Kansas (Arkansas City, Desha
County), through eastern Oklahoma and southern Arkansas to northern and
central Texas (Cherokee County); now occasionally naturalized in the
eastern Gulf States and possibly indigenous in Dallas County, Alabama,
and Orange County, Florida.
A number of selected forms of this variety, including most of those
formerly referred to _Prunus angustifolia_, are grown and valued in
southern orchards but are not hardy in the north.
12. Prunus pennsylvanica L. Wild Red Cherry. Bird Cherry.
[Illustration: Fig. 524]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, sometimes slightly falcate, acuminate or
rarely acute, and finely and sharply serrate with incurved teeth often
tipped with minute glands, when they unfold bronze-green, pilose below
and slightly viscid, soon becoming green and glabrous, and at maturity
bright and lustrous on the upper surface, rather paler on the lower
surface, 3′—4½′ long and ¾′—1¼′ wide; turning bright clear yellow some
time before falling in the autumn; petioles slender, glabrous or
slightly pilose, ½′—1′ in length, and often glandular above the middle;
stipules acuminate, glandular-serrate, early deciduous. Flowers
appearing in early May when the leaves are about half grown, or at the
extreme north and at high altitudes as late as the 1st of July, ½′ in
diameter, on slender pedicels nearly 1′ long, in 4 or 5-flowered umbels
or corymbs; calyx-tube broad-obconic, glabrous, marked in the mouth of
the throat by a conspicuous light orange-colored band, the lobes obtuse,
red at apex, and reflexed after the flowers open; petals ¼′ long, nearly
orbicular, contracted at base into a short claw, creamy white. Fruit
ripening from the 1st of July to the 1st of September, globose, ¼′ in
diameter, with a thick light red skin, and thin sour flesh; stone
oblong, thin-walled, slightly compressed, pointed at apex, rounded at
base, about 3/16′ long, and ridged on the ventral suture.
A tree, with bitter aromatic bark and leaves, 30°—40° high, with a trunk
often 18′—20′ in diameter, regular slender horizontal branches forming a
narrow usually more or less rounded head, and slender branchlets light
red and sometimes slightly puberulous when they first appear, soon
glabrous, bright red, lustrous and covered with pale raised lenticels in
their first winter, and developing in their second year short thick
spur-like lateral branchlets and then covered with dull red bark marked
by bright orange-colored lenticels, the outer coat easily separable from
the brilliant green inner bark; at the extreme north often a low shrub.
Winter-buds ovoid to ellipsoid, acute, about 1/12′ long, with bright
red-brown acute scales, ciliate on the margins. Bark of young stems and
of the branches smooth and thin, bright reddish brown, becoming on old
trunks ⅓′—½′ thick, and separating horizontally into broad persistent
papery dark red-brown plates marked by irregular horizontal bands of
orange-colored lenticels and broken into minute persistent scales. Wood
light, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thin yellow sapwood. The
fruit is often used domestically and in the preparation of cough
mixtures.
Distribution. Newfoundland to the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and westward
in British America to the eastern slopes of the coast range of British
Columbia in the valley of the Frazer River, and southward through New
England, New York, northern Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern
Illinois, central Iowa, and on the Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina
and Tennessee; common in all the forest regions of the extreme northern
states, growing in moist rather rich soil; often occupying to the
exclusion of other trees large areas cleared by fire of their original
forest-covering; common and attaining its largest size on the western
slopes of the Big Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Passing into var.
_saximontana_ Rehd. differing from the type in its shorter and broader,
more coarsely serrate leaves, usually fewer flowered sessile umbels,
larger fruit, and smaller size. The Rocky Mountain form; common from
Manitoba, the Flathead Lake region, Montana, and northern Wyoming,
southward through Colorado.
13. Prunus emarginata Walp. Wild Cherry.
[Illustration: Fig. 525]
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, rounded and usually obtuse or
sometimes acute at apex, cuneate and furnished at base with 1 or 2 and
sometimes 3 or 4 large dark glands, and serrate with minute subulate
glandular teeth, when they unfold puberulous or pubescent on the lower
surface and slightly viscid, and at maturity glabrous or pubescent below
(var. _mollis_ S. Wats.), 1′—3′ long, ⅓′—1½′ wide, dark green above and
paler below; petioles usually pubescent, ⅛′—¼′ in length; stipules
lanceolate, acuminate, glandular-serrate, deciduous. Flowers appearing
when the leaves are about half grown, at the end of April at the level
of the ocean or as late as the end of June at high altitudes, ⅓′—½′ in
diameter, on slender pedicels from the axils of foliaceous glabrous
glandular-serrate bracts, in 6—12-flowered glabrous or pubescent corymbs
1′—1½′ long; calyx-tube obconic, glabrous or puberulous, bright
orange-colored in the throat, the lobes short, rounded, emarginate or
slightly cleft at apex, sometimes slightly glandular on the margins,
reflexed after the flowers open; petals obovate, rounded or emarginate
at apex, contracted below into a short claw, white faintly tinged with
green. Fruit ripening from June to August, on slender pedicels, in
long-stalked corymbs often 2′ long, globose, ¼′—½′ in diameter, more or
less translucent, with a thick skin bright red at first when fully
grown, becoming darker and almost black, and thin bitter astringent
flesh; stone ovoid, turgid about ⅛′ long, pointed and compressed at the
ends, with thick brittle slightly pitted walls, ridged and prominently
grooved on the ventral suture and rounded and slightly grooved on the
dorsal suture.
A tree, occasionally 30°—40° high, with exceedingly bitter bark and
leaves, a trunk 12′—14′ in diameter, slender rather upright branches
forming a symmetric oblong head, and slender flexible branchlets coated
at first with pale pubescence, dark red-brown during their first winter,
bright red, conspicuously marked by large pale lenticels in their second
season, and furnished with short lateral branchlets; frequently a shrub
especially at high altitudes, with spreading stems 3°—10° tall forming
dense thickets. Winter-buds acute, ⅛′ long, with chestnut-brown scales
often slightly scarious on the margins, those of the inner ranks
becoming acuminate, glandular-serrate above the middle, with bright red
tips, scarious, and ½′ long. Bark about ¼′ thick, with a generally
smooth dark brown surface marked by horizontal light gray interrupted
bands and by rows of oblong orange-colored lenticels. Wood
close-grained, soft and brittle, brown streaked with green, with paler
sapwood of 8—10 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Usually near the banks of streams in low rich soil, or
less commonly on dry hillsides; valley of the upper Jocko River,
Montana, on the mountain ranges of Idaho and Washington and of southern
British Columbia to Vancouver Island, and southward on the coast and
interior ranges to the neighborhood of the bay of San Francisco, on the
western slopes of the Sierra Nevada up to altitudes of 5000°—6000° above
the sea to the head of Kern River, on the Santa Lucia, San Rafael, and
San Bernardino Mountains, California, on the Washoe Mountains, Nevada,
and the mountains of northern Arizona; of its largest size on Vancouver
Island, in western Oregon and Washington, and on the Santa Lucia
Mountains; on the coast ranges of middle California and on the Sierra
Nevada commonly a shrub 5°—8° high.
14. Prunus virginiana L. Choke Cherry.
[Illustration: Fig. 526]
Leaves oval, oblong or obovate, abruptly short-pointed at apex, cuneate,
rounded or rarely slightly cordate at base, and sharply often doubly
serrate with spreading subulate teeth, glabrous when they unfold or
furnished below with axillary tufts of pale hairs, and at maturity dark
green and lustrous on the upper surface, light green or pale on the
lower surface, 2′—4′ long and 1′—2′ wide; turning bright clear yellow in
the autumn before falling; petioles slender, biglandular near apex, or
on vigorous shoots sometimes many-glandular, ½′—1′ in length; stipules
lanceolate, about ½′ long, early deciduous. Flowers opening from April
to the end of June, ⅓′—½′ in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels from
the axils of scarious caducous bracts, in erect or nodding racemes 3′—6′
in length; calyx-tube cup-shaped, globose, the lobes short, obtuse,
laciniate and more or less glandular on the margins; petals orbicular,
contracted into a short claw, white; filaments and pistil glabrous, the
short thick style abruptly enlarged into a broad orbicular stigma. Fruit
globose or occasionally slightly elongated, ¼′—⅓′ in diameter, lustrous,
bright red at first when fully grown, becoming at maturity scarlet, dark
vinous red or nearly black, or rarely bright canary color (var.
_leucocarpa_ S. Wats.), with a thick lustrous skin, and dark juicy
flesh, austere and astringent, becoming at maturity less astringent and
sometimes edible; stone oblong-ovoid broadly ridged on one suture and
acute on the other.
A tree occasionally 20°—25° high, with a straight trunk sometimes 6′—8′
in diameter, small erect or horizontal branches, and slender glabrous
red-brown or orange-brown lustrous branchlets marked by pale lenticels,
becoming dark red-brown in their second year; more often a large or
small shrub, at the north frequently not more than 2°—3° tall.
Winter-buds acute or obtuse, with pale chestnut brown scales rounded at
apex and more or less scarious on the margins, those of the inner rank
becoming lanceolate or ligulate, sharply and often glandular-serrate,
and ½′—1′ in length. Bark strongly and disagreeably scented, about ⅛′
thick, slightly and irregularly fissured, separating on the surface into
small persistent dark red-brown scales, and often marked by pale
irregular excrescences. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, not strong,
light brown, with thick lighter-colored sapwood of 15—20 layers of
annual growth.
Distribution. Margins of the forest, generally in rich rather moist
soil, and along highways and fence-rows; Newfoundland, through Labrador
to the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and southward to the valley of the
Potomac River and northern Kentucky; in Buncombe and Iredell Counties,
North Carolina, and Talladega County, Alabama, and westward to
Saskatchewan, eastern North and South Dakota and Nebraska, northeastern
Missouri and Kansas; more often a tree southward and in cultivation.
Passing into the var. _melanocarpa_ Sarg. with rather thicker rarely
lanceolate leaves, and usually darker often less astringent rarely
yellow (f. _xanthocarpa_ Sarg.) fruit.
Distribution. Low valleys and the slopes of mountain ranges; Manitoba,
western North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, westward
to northern British Columbia, and southward in the Rocky Mountain region
through Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Nevada to
southern New Mexico and Arizona, and through Washington, Oregon and
California to San Diego County; in the rich soil of valleys a tree
sometimes 30° tall; on dry mountain slopes a shrub 2° or 3° high. More
distinct is
Prunus virginiana var. demissa Sarg.
_Cerasus demissa_ Nutt.
[Illustration: Fig. 527]
Differing in its often cordate leaves covered below with pale
pubescence.
Distribution. Prairies and valleys of western Washington and Oregon,
southward to Siskiyou, Napa, Santa Cruz and Kern Counties, California,
in northern Nebraska, central Iowa, western Texas (Gamble’s Ranch,
Armstrong County, with pubescent leaves cuneate at base), and in New
Mexico.
Passing into var. _demissa_ f. _pachyrrachis_ Sarg. (_Padus valida_
Woot. & Stanl.) differing in the cuneate or rounded base of the leaves,
villose pubescent on the midrib and veins below, in the stouter
pubescent rachis and pedicels, and in the pubescent branchlets usually
becoming glabrous at the end of their second season.
Distribution. Common on the mountains of southwestern New Mexico (Sierra
County) and rarely in southern California.
15. Prunus serotina Ehrh. Wild Black Cherry. Rum Cherry.
_Prunus eximia_ Small.
[Illustration: Fig. 528]
Leaves oval, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, gradually or sometimes
abruptly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, finely serrate with
appressed incurved callous teeth, and furnished at the very base with 1
or more dark red conspicuous glands, when they unfold slightly hairy
below on the midrib, and often bronze-green, and at maturity glabrous,
thick and firm, subcoriaceous, dark green and very lustrous above, paler
below, 2′—6′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a thin conspicuous midrib rarely
furnished toward the base with a fringe of rusty tomentum and slender
veins; in the autumn turning clear bright yellow before falling;
petioles slender, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules lanceolate, acuminate,
glandular-serrate, ½′—¾′ in length, early deciduous. Flowers appearing
when the leaves are about half grown, from the end of March in Texas to
the first week of June in the valley of the St. Lawrence River. ¼′ in
diameter, on slender glabrous or puberulous pedicels from the axils of
minute scarious caducous bracts, in erect or ultimately spreading narrow
many-flowered racemes 4′—6′ long; calyx-tube saucer-shaped, glabrous or
puberulous, the lobes short, ovate-oblong, acute, slightly laciniate on
the margins, reflexed after the flowers open, persistent on the ripe
fruit; petals broad-obovate, pure white. Fruit ripening from June to
October, in drooping racemes, depressed-globose, slightly lobed, ⅓′—½′
in diameter, dark red when fully grown, almost black when ripe, with a
thin skin, and dark purple juicy flesh of a pleasant vinous flavor;
stone oblong-obovoid thin-walled, about ⅓′ long, acute at apex,
gradually narrowed at base, broadly ridged on the ventral suture and
acute on the dorsal suture.
A tree, with bitter aromatic bark and leaves, sometimes 100° high, with
a trunk 4°—5° in diameter, small horizontal branches forming a narrow
oblong head, and slender rather rigid glabrous branchlets at first pale
green or bronze color, soon becoming bright red or dark brown tinged
with red, red-brown or gray-brown and marked by minute pale lenticels
during their first winter, and bright red the following year; usually
much smaller and occasionally toward the northern limits of its range
shrub-like in habit. Winter-buds obtuse, or on sterile shoots acute,
with bright chestnut-brown broad-ovate scales keeled on the back and
apiculate at apex, those of the inner ranks becoming scarious at
maturity, acuminate, and ½′—⅔′ long. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, broken by
reticulated fissures into small irregular plates scaly on the surface,
and dark red-brown, or near the Gulf-coast light gray or nearly white.
Wood light, strong, rather hard, close straight-grained, with a satiny
surface, light brown or red, with thin yellow sapwood of 10—12 layers of
annual growth; largely used in cabinet-making and the interior finish of
houses. The bark, especially that of the branches and roots, yields
hydrocyanic acid used in medicine as a tonic and sedative. The ripe
fruit is used to flavor alcoholic liquors.
Distribution. Nova Scotia westward through the Canadian provinces to
Lake Superior, and southward through the eastern states to central (Lake
County) Florida, and westward to eastern South Dakota, southeastern
Nebraska, eastern Kansas, central Oklahoma and the valley of the east
fork of the Frio River, Texas; usually in rich moist soil; once very
abundant in all the Appalachian region, reaching its greatest size on
the slopes of the high Alleghany Mountains from West Virginia to
Georgia, and in Alabama; sometimes on low sandy soil, and often in New
England on rocky cliffs within reach of the spray of the ocean; not
common in the coast region of the southern states.
A form from the summits of Whitetop Mountain, Virginia, with larger and
rather thicker leaves pale below and rather larger fruit, has been
described as var. _montana_ Britt.
16. Prunus alabamensis Mohr. Wild Cherry.
[Illustration: Fig. 529]
Leaves oval, broad-ovate, or occasionally obovate, acute, short-pointed
or rounded at apex, cuneate, rounded or rarely slightly obcordate at
base, and finely serrate with incurved teeth tipped with minute or
sometimes near the base of the blade with larger dark glands, when they
unfold coated below and on the upper side of the midrib with fine
pubescence, and at maturity thick and firm in texture, 4′—5′ long, about
2′ wide, dark dull green and glabrous on the upper surface, dull and
covered on the lower surface with short simple or forked accrescent
hairs most abundant and sometimes rufescent on the slender midrib and
primary veins; petioles stout, tomentose, becoming pubescent, eglandular
or occasionally furnished near the apex with 1 or 2 large dark glands,
¼′—½′ in length; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, glandular-serrate,
bright red, ½′ long, caducous. Flowers appearing during the first week
of May, when the leaves are about half grown, ¼′ in diameter, on
pubescent pedicels from the axils of ovate or obovate acuminate bright
pink caducous bracts, in spreading or erect slender pubescent racemes
3′—4′ long; calyx-tube broad, cup-shaped, puberulous, with short almost
triangular lobes persistent on the fruit; petals white, nearly
orbicular. Fruit ripening late in September, subglobose to short-oblong,
⅓′ in diameter, dark red or finally nearly black, with thin acid flesh;
stone ovoid somewhat compressed, pointed at the ends, ¼′ long, ridged on
the ventral suture with a broad low ridge, and slightly grooved on the
dorsal suture.
A tree, 25°—30° high, with a short trunk rarely 10′ in diameter,
spreading somewhat drooping branches, and slender branchlets coated at
first with pale tomentum, dark red-brown during their first season,
becoming nearly glabrous before winter, and much darker in their second
year. Bark of the trunk dark, rough, separating freely into small thin
scales.
Distribution. Summits of the low mountains of central Alabama; rare and
local.
17. Prunus australis Beadl. Wild Cherry.
[Illustration: Fig. 530]
Leaves obovate, oval or elliptic, gradually narrowed and obtusely
short-pointed or sometimes acute at apex, rounded or occasionally
cuneate at the narrowed base, and finely serrate with slender teeth
tipped with minute dark red glands, when they unfold membranaceous, pale
yellow-green and glabrous above, with the exception of occasional pale
hairs along the midrib, and coated below with pale or ferrugineous
pubescence, and at maturity thin but firm, dark dull green above,
covered below with rufous hairs most abundant on the thin broad midrib,
and on the slender primary veins extending nearly to the margins of the
leaf, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, 2½′—4′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide;
petioles rusty-tomentose, biglandular at apex with large dark glands,
about ¼′ in length; stipules linear to linear-lanceolate, glandular,
bright rose color, ¼′—½′ long. Flowers probably opening toward the end
of April, on short pedicels from the axils of minute rose-colored
caducous bracts, in slender spreading hoary-pubescent racemes 3′—4′
long; the expanded flowers not known. Fruit ripening and falling late in
July, on pedicels ¼′ long, globose, surrounded at base by the
calyx-lobes and remnants of the stamens, dark purple when fully ripe,
and about ¼′ in diameter, with thin flesh; stone ovoid, compressed,
rounded at base, pointed at apex, about ⅙′ long and broad, ridged on the
ventral suture, with a low broad ridge, slightly grooved on the dorsal
suture.
A tree, sometimes 60° tall, with a trunk 12′—16′ in diameter, spreading
or ascending branches forming an oblong head, and slender branchlets
coated at first with pale pubescence, becoming puberulous, dull
red-brown, and roughened by numerous small pale elevated lenticels at
the end of their first season, and glabrous or puberulous in their
second year. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, about 1/12′ long, with acute
dark red-brown glabrous scales. Bark of young stems and of the branches
thin, silvery gray, and roughened by long horizontal lenticels, becoming
on older trunks ⅓′ thick, ashy gray or brownish black, deeply fissured
and broken into thick persistent plate-like scales.
Distribution. Clay soil at Evergreen, Conecut County, Alabama; common.
18. Prunus virens Shrive. Wild Cherry.
_Padus virens_ Woot. & Stanl.
_Prunus serotina_, ed. 1, in so far as relates to western Texas, New
Mexico and Arizona.
[Illustration: Fig. 531]
Leaves elliptic, ovate or rarely slightly obovate, acute, rounded or
occasionally acuminate or abruptly narrowed into a short obtuse point at
apex, rounded or broad-cuneate at base, finely crenately serrate,
glabrous, light green and lustrous on the upper surface, lighter green
and glabrous on the lower surface, 1½′—2′ long and ¾′—1′ wide, with a
slender midrib, thin veins and reticulate veinlets; petioles slender,
glabrous or rarely slightly villose, without glands, ¼′—½′ in length.
Flowers appearing when the leaves are nearly fully grown from the first
to the middle of May, ¼′ in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in
erect or spreading many-flowered glabrous or puberulous racemes 3′—6′
long; calyx-tube saucer-shaped, glabrous, 3/16′ wide, persistent under
the fruit, the lobes short-pointed, acute, persistent; petals
broad-obovate, pure white. Fruit ripening in August and September, in
erect or spreading racemes, subglobose to short-oblong, purplish black
and lustrous at maturity, ¼′—½′ in diameter, with thin juicy acrid
flesh; stone compressed, slightly obovoid ¼′ in diameter, with a low
broad ridge on the ventral suture, and rounded on the dorsal suture.
A tree in sheltered cañons sometimes 25°—30° high, with a trunk 18′ or
20′ in diameter, small, usually drooping or occasionally wide-spreading
branches, and slender glabrous red-brown pendulous branchlets marked by
small pale lenticels, becoming gray-brown in their second year; on open
mountain slopes a shrub with numerous erect stems and usually smaller
leaves. Winter-buds acute or acuminate, 1/16′—⅛′ long, with slightly
villose red-brown scales. Bark near the base of old trunks ¼′ thick,
nearly black, deeply fissured and broken on the surface into thin
persistent scales, higher on the trunk and on small stems thin, smooth,
reddish or gray-brown, lustrous and marked by many narrow oblong pale
horizontal lenticels.
Distribution. Guadalupe Mountains, western Texas, over the mountain
ranges of southern New Mexico and Arizona, extending northward in
Arizona to the cañons of the Colorado plateau south of the Colorado
River; widely and generally distributed at altitudes between 5000° and
8000°, but nowhere abundant. Passing into var. _rufula_ Sarg., differing
in the rusty brown pubescence on the lower side of the midrib of the
leaves, in the pubescent petiole and lower part of the rachis, in the
puberulous ovary, and in the rusty brown pubescence of the young
branchlets.
Distribution. With the species on many of the mountain ranges of
southern New Mexico and Arizona at altitudes between 5400° and 6000°.
19. Prunus caroliniana Ait. Wild Orange. Mock Orange.
[Illustration: Fig. 532]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate, with entire thickened
slightly revolute margins, or rarely remotely spinulose-serrate,
glabrous, coriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface,
paler on the lower surface, 2′—4½′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide, and obscurely
veined, with a narrow pale midrib; persistent until their second year;
petioles stout, broad, orange-colored; stipules foliaceous, lanceolate,
acuminate. Flowers appearing from February to April, on slender pedicels
about ½′ long, from the axils of long-acuminate scarious red-tipped
bracts, in dense racemes shorter than leaves; calyx-tube narrow-obconic,
the lobes small, thin, rounded, undulate on the margins, reflexed after
the flowers open, deciduous; petals boat-shaped, minute, cream-colored;
stamens exserted, orange-colored, with glabrous filaments and large pale
anthers; ovary gradually narrowed into a slender erect style enlarged
above into a club-shaped stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, remaining
on the branches until after the flowering period of the following year,
oblong, short-pointed, black and lustrous, ½′ long, with a thick skin,
and thin dry flesh; stone short-ovoid, pointed, nearly cylindric, about
½′ long, full and rounded at base, with thin fragile walls, obscurely
ridged on the ventral suture and deeply grooved on the dorsal suture.
A tree, 30°—40° high, with a straight or inclining trunk sometimes 10′
in diameter, slender horizontal branches forming a narrow oblong or
sometimes a broad head, and glabrous branchlets marked by occasional
pale lenticels, slightly angled, at first light green, becoming bright
red, and in the second season light brown or gray. Winter-buds
acuminate, ⅛′ long, covered with narrow pointed dark chestnut-brown
scales rounded on the back. Bark about ⅛′ thick, gray, smooth or
slightly roughened by longitudinal fissures, and marked by large
irregular dark blotches. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light
red-brown or sometimes rich dark brown, with thick lighter colored
sapwood. The partially withered leaves and young branches are often
fatal to animals browsing upon them, owing to the considerable
quantities of hydrocyanic acid which they contain.
Distribution. Deep rich moist bottom-lands; valley of the Cape Fear
River, North Carolina, to the shores of Bay Biscayne and the valley of
the Kissimee River, Florida, and through southern Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana to the valley of the Guadalupe River, Texas; in Bermuda;
in the Atlantic and eastern Gulf states usually only in the immediate
neighborhood of the sea, rarely ranging inland more than fifteen or
twenty miles; common along the borders of hummocks in the center of the
Florida peninsula and a characteristic tree on those in the region of
Lake Apopka, Orange County; in Alabama ranging inland to Dallas County
(Pleasant Hill, _T. B. Harbison_); most abundant and of its largest size
in the valleys of eastern Texas, and here often forming great
impenetrable thickets.
Often cultivated in the southern states as an ornamental plant and to
form hedges; and when cultivated occasionally 50°—60° high, with a trunk
3° in diameter.
20. Prunus myrtifolia Urb.
_Prunus sphærocarpa_ Sw.
[Illustration: Fig. 533]
Leaves elliptic to oblong-ovate, gradually or abruptly contracted into a
broad obtuse point, or less commonly rounded or rarely emarginate at
apex, cuneate at base, entire, with slightly thickened undulate margins,
glabrous, eglandular, subcoriaceous, yellow-green and lustrous on the
upper surface, paler on the lower surface, obscurely veined, 2′—4½′ long
and 1′—1½′ wide; persistent; petioles slender, orange-brown, ½′ to 1′ in
length; stipules foliaceous, lanceolate, acuminate, entire, ¼′ long,
early deciduous. Flowers opening in Florida in November, ⅛′ in diameter,
on thin orange-colored pedicels ¼′—⅔′ long, in slender many-flowered
erect racemes shorter than the leaves; calyx-tube obconic, bright
orange-colored on the outer surface, marked by an orange band in the
throat, the lobes thin, minute, acute, laciniate on the margins,
deciduous, much shorter than the obovate rounded or acuminate white
petals marked with yellow on the inner surface toward the base,
contracted below into a short claw, reflexed at maturity; stamens
exserted, with slender orange-colored subulate filaments and small
yellow anthers; ovary sessile, contracted into a short stout style,
terminating in a large club-shaped stigma. Fruit produced in Florida
very sparingly, ripening either in the spring or early summer,
subglobose to short-oblong, apiculate, orange-brown, ⅓′—½′ long, with
thin dry flesh; stone thin-walled, cylindric, slightly narrowed at apex,
and obscurely ridged on the ventral suture.
A glabrous tree, in Florida rarely 30°—40° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in
diameter, thin upright branches and slender orange-brown branchlets,
becoming ashy gray or light brown tinged with red and marked by small
circular pale lenticels. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth or slightly
reticulate-fissured, light brown tinged with red. Wood heavy, hard,
close-grained, light clear red, with thick pale sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, rich hummock land, occasionally in the
neighborhood of small streams and ponds near the shore of Bay Biscayne
and on Long Key in the Everglades, Dade County; through the West Indies
to Brazil.
21. Prunus ilicifolia Walp. Islay.
[Illustration: Fig. 534]
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, rounded or emarginate at apex,
narrowed and rounded or truncate at base, with thickened coarsely
spinosely toothed margins, the stout teeth near the base of the leaf
often tipped with large dark glands, thick and coriaceous, dark green
and lustrous above, paler and yellow-green below, 1′—2½′ long, and
1′—1½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and obscure veins; deciduous
during their second summer; petioles broad, ⅛′—½′ in length; stipules
acuminate, obscurely denticulate, ¼′ long. Flowers opening from March to
May, ⅓′ in diameter, on short slender pedicels from the axils of
acuminate scarious bracts ¼′ in length and mostly deciduous before the
opening of the flower-buds, in slender erect racemes 1½′—3′ long;
calyx-tube cup-shaped, orange-brown, the lobes minute, acuminate,
reflexed at maturity, deciduous, about one third as long as the obovate
white petals rounded above and narrowed below into a short claw; stamens
slightly exserted, with slender incurved filaments and minute yellow
anthers; ovary sessile, abruptly contracted into a slender style usually
bent near the summit at a right angle or rarely erect, and surmounted by
a large orbicular stigma. Fruit ripening in November and December,
subglobose, often compressed, ½′—⅔′ in diameter, dark red when fully
grown, purple or sometimes nearly black at maturity, with thin slightly
acid astringent flesh; stone ovoid slightly compressed, ½′—⅝′ long,
short-pointed at apex, with thin brittle walls, light yellow-brown,
conspicuously marked by reticulate orange-colored vein-like lines and
with 3 orange bands radiating from the base to the apex along one
suture, and with a single narrow band along the other suture.
A glabrous tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely 2° in diameter or
more than 10°—12° long, stout spreading branches forming a dense compact
head, and branchlets at first yellow-green or orange color, soon
becoming gray or reddish brown and more or less conspicuously marked by
minute pale lenticels, and in their second or third years by the large
leaf-scars; usually much smaller and often a shrub sometimes only a foot
or two high. Winter-buds acuminate, with dark red scales contracted into
a long slender point, those of the inner ranks accrescent and persistent
on the young branchlets until these have reached a length of several
inches. Bark ⅓′—½′ thick, dark red-brown, and divided by deep fissures
into small square plates. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light
red-brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 8—10 layers of annual
growth; occasionally used for fuel.
Distribution. Borders of streams and moist sandy soil in the bottoms of
cañons, and as a low shrub on dry hillsides and mesas from Solano County
and the shores of the Bay of San Francisco southward through the coast
ranges of California to the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains,
and the valley of the San Jacinto River; in Lower California southward
to the western slopes of the San Pedro Mártir Mountains.
Generally cultivated as an ornamental plant in California and
occasionally in western and southern Europe.
22. Prunus Lyonii Sarg.
_Prunus integrifolia_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 535]
Leaves ovate to lanceolate, acuminate or abruptly narrowed into a short
point at apex, cuneate, truncate or rounded at base, with thickened
revolute undulate entire or occasionally, especially on vigorous shoots,
remotely and minutely spinulose-dentate margins, glabrous, coriaceous,
dark green and lustrous above, paler below, reticulate-venulose, 2′—3′
long and ½′—2½′ wide, with a stout midrib and obscure veins; persistent;
petioles stout, yellow, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers appearing from March to
June, about ¼′ in diameter, on slender pedicels from the axils of
acuminate caducous bracts, in crowded many-flowered glabrous racemes
3′—4′ long; calyx-tube cup-shaped, orange-brown, the lobes acute,
apiculate, reflexed after the flowers open, deciduous, about one third
as long as the obovate petals rounded and undulate above and narrowed
below into a short claw; stamens slightly exserted, with incurved
filaments and small yellow anthers; ovary raised on a short stipe, the
style bent near the apex and terminating in a large orbicular stigma.
Fruit ripening late in the autumn, on stout pedicels, in drooping
few-fruited racemes, subglobose to short-oblong, dark purple or nearly
black at maturity, 1′—1¼′ in diameter, with thick luscious flesh
sometimes ¼′ thick; stone ovoid to obovoid, slightly compressed,
thin-walled, about ¾′ long, pointed at apex, pale yellow-brown,
conspicuously marked by reticulate orange-colored lines, and by 3 dark
bands radiating from base to apex along one suture, and by a single
narrow line on the other suture.
A bushy tree, sometimes 25°—30° high, with one or several stout erect or
spreading stems 1°—3° in diameter, spreading branches forming a broad
compact head, and stout branchlets light yellow-green when they first
appear, becoming light and ultimately dark reddish brown, and much
roughened by the large elevated leaf-scars. Winter-buds acute or obtuse,
with dark red scales. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick and dark reddish
brown. Wood heavy, hard, very close-grained, pale reddish brown, with
hardly distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution. Islands of southern California, in all situations from the
fertile valleys and cañons at the water’s edge up to altitudes of 3000°
on the dry interior ridges; in Lower California.
11. CHRYSOBALANUS L.
Trees or shrubs, with stout branchlets covered with pale lenticels, and
fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, entire, coriaceous, short-petiolate,
persistent; stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers perfect,
short-pedicellate, small, creamy white, in axillary or terminal
dichotomously branched slender canescent cymes, with conspicuous
deciduous bracts; calyx turbinate-campanulate, 5-lobed, the lobes
imbricated in the bud, without bracts, deciduous; disk thin, adnate to
the calyx-tube; petals 5, alternate with the lobes of the calyx,
spatulate, deciduous; stamens (in the arborescent species) indefinite in
a single continuous series, inserted with the petals on the margin of
the disk; filaments filiform, hairy, free or slightly united at base;
anthers ovoid, ovary sessile in the bottom of the calyx-tube, pubescent
or glabrous, 1-celled; style rising from the base of the ovary,
filiform, terminated by a minute truncate stigma; ovules 2, collateral,
ascending; raphe dorsal; the micropyle inferior. Fruit a fleshy 1-seeded
drupe with pulpy flesh, a coriaceous or crustaceous stone 5 or 6-angled
toward the base and imperfectly 5 or 6-valved, the valves
reticulate-veined. Seed erect; seed-coat chartaceous, light brown;
embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy;
radicle inferior, very short.
Chrysobalanus is represented in the south Atlantic states by a shrubby
species confined to the coast region from Georgia to Alabama, and by an
arborescent species, an inhabitant of the shores of southern Florida,
and widely distributed through the maritime regions of tropical America,
and found in various forms on the coast of western tropical Africa. The
insipid fruit of the arborescent species is eaten by negroes; the seeds
contain a considerable quantity of oil; and the astringent bark, leaves
and roots have been used in medicine.
The generic name is from χρυσός and βάλανος, in allusion to the supposed
golden fruit of one of the species.
1. Chrysobalanus icaco L. Cocoa Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 536]
Leaves broad-elliptic or round-obovate, rounded or slightly emarginate
at apex, cuneate at base, glabrous, coriaceous, obscurely
reticulate-veined, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, light
yellow-green on the lower surface, 1′—3½′ long and 1′—2½′ wide, with a
broad conspicuous midrib rounded on the upper side and thin primary
veins, standing on the branches at an acute angle and appearing to be
pressed against them; petioles stout, ⅛′—¼′ in length; stipules
acuminate, ⅛′ long. Flowers ⅓′ long, on short thick club-shaped
hoary-tomentose pedicels, in cymes 1′—2′ in length; appearing in Florida
continuously during the spring and summer months on the growing
branches; calyx hoary-tomentose, the lobes nearly triangular, acute,
more or less pubescent on the inner surface and about half as long as
the narrow white petals; ovary hoary-pubescent; style long and slender,
clothed nearly to the apex with pale hairs. Fruit nearly globose or
oval-ovoid, 1½′—1¾′ in diameter, with a smooth bright pink, yellow, or
creamy white skin, white sweet juicy flesh often ¼′ thick, and more or
less adherent to the stone rounded at base, acute or acuminate at apex,
5 or 6-angled below the middle, about 1′ long and twice as long as
broad, indehiscent or finally separating into 5 or 6 valves, the walls
composed of a thin red-brown dry outer layer and a thick interior layer
of hard woody fibre; seed-coat lined with a thick white reticulated
fibrous coat.
Usually a broad shrub 10°—12° high, forming dense thickets, with erect
branches and dark red-brown branchlets thickly covered for four or five
years with lenticels, occasionally on the borders of low hummocks
arborescent with reclining or rarely erect stems 20°—30° long and 1° in
diameter, or on the margins of ocean beaches often not more than 1° or
2° tall. Bark dark red-brown and scaly, separating into long thin
scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light brown often
tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of about 10 layers of
annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, saline shores, river banks and low hummocks, Cape
Canaveral to Bay Biscayne, and on the west coast from the mouth of the
Caloosahatchie River to the southern keys; through the West Indies to
southern Brazil, and on the tropical west coast of Africa. Passing into
Chrysobalanus icaco var. pellocarpa DC.
[Illustration: Fig. 537]
Differing from the type in its rather larger leaves spreading and less
crowded on the branches, its oblong to oblong-obovoid dark purple or
nearly black usually rather smaller fruit, and in its long-acuminate and
more prominently angled stone.
A tree, 20°—30° or rarely 50° high, with an erect trunk 12′—16′ in
diameter, erect and spreading branches forming a wide open head, and
slender branchlets marked by scattered pale lenticels; often smaller and
occasionally a shrub. Bark gray slightly tinged with red and covered
with small closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Florida, banks of streams and borders of the Everglades,
near Little River to the Everglade keys, Dade County; on the Bahama
Islands and in Jamaica.
XXIII. LEGUMINOSÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate usually compound leaves, regular or
papilionaceous usually perfect flowers; stamens 10 or indefinite, with
diadelphous or distinct filaments and 2-celled anthers, the cells
opening longitudinally; ovary superior, 1 or many-celled, inserted on
the bottom of the calyx. Fruit a legume. Of the four hundred and thirty
genera of the Pea-family now recognized and widely distributed in all
temperate and tropical regions, eighteen have arborescent
representatives in the United States.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.
Subfamily 1. Mimosoideæ. Calyx 4—6-toothed, the teeth valvate in the
bud; petals as many as the teeth of the calyx, valvate in the
bud; ovules numerous, suspended in 2 ranks from the inner angle
of the ovary, superposed, anatropous, the micropyle superior;
stamens much exserted; leaves twice pinnate; cotyledons oval or
orbicular, flat; radicle straight.
Stamens numerous (more than 10); seeds without albumen.
Filaments more or less united into a tube.
Filaments united.
Valves of the legume not separating at maturity from the
margins.
1. Pithecolobium.
Valves of the legume separating at maturity from the
persistent margins.
2. Lysiloma.
Filaments free or the inner ones slightly united at base.
3. Acacia.
Stamens 10; filaments free; seeds with albumen.
Legume plano-compressed, dehiscent; flowers in globose heads.
4. Leucæna.
Legume terete or compressed, indehiscent; flowers in cylindric
spikes.
5. Prosopis.
Subfamily 2. Cæsalpinioidæ. Calyx 5-lobed or toothed, the divisions
usually valvate in the bud; corolla imperfectly papilionaceous
or nearly regular; petals 5, imbricated in the bud, the upper
petal inside and inclosed by the others; stamens 10 or less;
filaments free; anthers introrse; ovules numerous (_sometimes 2
in one species of Gleditsia_), superposed, anatropous, the
micropyle superior; seeds albuminous.
Flowers imperfectly papilionaceous; calyx 5-toothed; legume flat,
wing-margined; leaves simple
6. Cercis.
Flowers regular.
Flowers polygamous or diœcious.
Calyx-tube elongated, 5-lobed; petals 5; stamens 10, shorter
than the petals; legume thick and woody; leaves twice
pinnate.
7. Gymnocladus.
Calyx-tube short, 3—5-lobed; petals 3—5; stamens 3—5, longer
than the petals; legume leathery; leaves once and twice
pinnate.
8. Gleditsia.
Flowers perfect.
Legume linear, torulose, acuminate at the ends, the valves
contracted between the seeds; rachis of the leaf
spinescent.
9. Parkinsonia.
Legume oblong, compressed; rachis of the leaf not spinescent.
10. Cercidium.
Subfamily 3. Papilionatæ. Calyx of 5 more or less united sepals;
corolla of 5 irregular petals, papilionaceous, the upper petal
(_standard_) larger than the others and inclosing them in the
bud, usually turned backward or spreading, the 2 lateral petals
(_wings_) oblong, exterior to the 2 lower connivent more or less
united petals (_keel_) inclosing the stamens and pistil; stamens
10, 9 of them united into a tube cleft on the upper side, the
10th and upper stamen separate, or all distinct; ovary 1 or
many-celled by cross partitions; ovules amphitropous, the
micropyle superior; seeds usually without albumen; leaves once
pinnate.
Stamens distinct.
Flowers in racemes; legume terete, contracted between the seeds.
11. Sophora.
Flowers in panicles; legume compressed.
12. Cladrastis.
Stamens diadelphous (9 and 1).
Flowers in racemes.
Leaves glandular-dotted.
Leaves many-foliolate; petals free and distinct.
13. Eysenhardtia.
Leaves simple; wings and keel-petals adnate to the tube of the
stamens.
14. Dalea.
Leaves without glandular dots.
Legume compressed; stipules becoming spinescent, persistent.
15. Robinia.
Legume turgid, the valves unequally convex by the growth of
the seeds.
Leaves 10—15-foliolate, without stipules or stipels; petals
purple or violet.
16. Olneya.
Leaves 3-foliolate, with minute stipules and gland-like
stipels; petals usually scarlet.
17. Erythrina.
Flowers in axillary panicles; pod linear, longitudinally 4-winged.
18. Ichthyomethia.
1. PITHECOLOBIUM Mart.
Trees or shrubs, with slender branches armed with the persistent
spinescent stipules. Leaves petiolate, bipinnate, the pinnæ
few-foliolate, their rachis generally marked by numerous glands between
the pinnæ and between the leaflets. Flowers perfect or polygamous, from
the axils of minute bracts, in pedunculate globose heads or oblong
cylindric spikes, their peduncles in terminal panicles or axillary
fascicles; calyx campanulate, short-toothed; corolla funnel-shaped, the
petals as many as the teeth of the calyx, joined for more than half
their length; stamens numerous, united at base into a tube free from the
corolla; anthers minute, versatile; ovary stipitate, contracted into a
slender filiform style, with a minute terminal stigma. Legume
compressed, 2-valved, dehiscent, the valves continuous or interrupted
within. Seeds compressed, suspended transversely; funicle filiform or
expanded into a fleshy aril; hilum near the base of the seed; seed-coat
thin or thick, marked on each of the 2 surfaces of the seed by a faint
oval ring or oblong depression; embryo filling the cavity of the seed;
the radicle included or slightly exserted.
Pithecolobium with more than a hundred species is widely distributed
through the tropical and subtropical regions of the two worlds, and is
most abundant in tropical America. Of the four species found within the
territory of the United States three are arborescent.
The generic name, from πίθηξ and ἐλλὸβίον, relates to the contorted
fruit of some of the species.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Pinnæ with 1 pair of leaflets; valves of the legume much contorted
after opening; seed surrounded by the enlarged ariloid funicle.
1. P. unguis-cati (D).
Pinnæ with more than 1 pair of leaflets; valves of the legume not
contorted after opening; funicle of the seed not enlarged and
ariloid.
Pinnæ with 3—5 pairs of leaflets; legume short-stalked, the valves
submembranaceous; seeds not in separate compartments.
2. P. brevifolium (E).
Pinnæ with 2—3 pairs of leaflets; legume sessile, the valves thick
and woody, tardily dehiscent; seeds in separate compartments.
3. P. flexicaule (E).
1. Pithecolobium unguis-cati Mart. Cat’s Claw.
_Zygia Unguis-Cati_ Sudw.
[Illustration: Fig. 538]
Leaves persistent, long-petiolate, with a single pair of bifoliolate
pinnæ and a slender petiole ½′—1′ long and slightly and abruptly
enlarged at base; rachis glandular between the short stout petiolules
and between the orbicular or broad-oblong leaflets, rounded and rarely
emarginate at apex, rounded on one side and cuneate on the other of the
oblique base, entire, thin or somewhat coriaceous, reticulate-veined,
bright green and lustrous on the upper surface and paler on the lower
surface, ½′—2′ long, and ½′—1½′ wide. Flowers polygamous, pale yellow,
glabrous or slightly puberulous, opening in Florida in March and
continuing to appear until midsummer, in globular heads on slender
peduncles 1′—1½′ long fascicled in the axils of upper leaves or
collected in ample terminal panicles, their bracts lanceolate,
acuminate, chartaceous, ¼′ long, caducous; calyx rather less than 1/12′
long, broadly toothed, one quarter as long as the acuminate petals
barely exceeding the tube formed by the union of the filaments; stamens
purple, ½′ long; ovary glabrous, long-stalked, minute or rudimentary in
the sterile flower. Fruit slightly torulose, stipitate, rounded or acute
at apex, 2′—4′ long, ¼′—½′ wide, the valves reticulate-veined, thickened
on the margins, bright reddish brown and after opening greatly and
variously contorted; seeds irregularly obovoid or sometimes nearly
triangular, compressed or thickened, dark chestnut-brown, lustrous,
marked by faint oval rings, ⅓′ long, surrounded at base by the enlarged
bright red ariloid funicle; seed-coat thin, cartilaginous.
A tree, sometimes 20°—25° high, with a slender trunk 7′—8′ in diameter,
ascending and spreading branches forming a low flat irregular head, and
slender somewhat zigzag branchlets slightly striately angled when they
first appear, becoming terete, light gray-brown or dark reddish brown,
covered with minute pale lenticels, and armed with the straight
persistent rigid stipular spines broad at base and ¼′ long, or rarely
minute; more often a shrub, with many vine-like almost prostrate stems.
Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, reddish brown and divided by shallow
fissures into small square plates. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained,
rich red varying to purple, with thin clear yellow sapwood. The bark is
astringent and diuretic, and was once used in Jamaica as a cure for many
diseases.
Distribution. Florida, Captive and Sanibel Islands and Caloosa, Lee
County to the southern keys; most abundant in its arborescent form on
the larger of the eastern keys, and probably of its largest size in
Florida on Elliott’s Key; often forming shrubby thickets; on the
Bahamas, and common and widely distributed through the Antilles to
Venezuela and New Granada.
2. Pithecolobium brevifolium Benth. Huajillo.
_Zygia brevifolia_ Sudw.
[Illustration: Fig. 539]
Leaves 2′—3′ long, 2′ wide, with eight to ten 10—20-foliolate pinnæ and
slender terete petioles 1′ in length and furnished near the middle with
a dark oblong gland, when they unfold coated with pale tomentum and at
maturity glabrous with the exception of the puberulous petiole and
rachis; persistent or tardily deciduous; leaflets oblong-linear, obtuse
or acute at apex, oblique at base, very short-petiolulate, light green
on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, ⅙′—¼′ long. Flowers
white to violet-yellow, in globose or oblong heads ½′ in diameter, on
thin pubescent peduncles bracteolate at apex, coated at first, like the
flower-buds, with thick white tomentum, developed usually in pairs from
the axils of lanceolate acute scarious deciduous bracts, and arranged in
short terminal racemes; calyx shortly 5-lobed, puberulous on the outer
surface, about 1/24′ long and one fourth the length of the puberulous
petals persistent with the stamens at the base of the mature legume;
stamens nearly ½′ long. Fruit ripening at midsummer and often persistent
on the branches after opening until the trees flower the following year,
straight, slightly torulose, short-stalked, contracted at apex into a
short slender point, 4′—6′ long and ⅔′ wide, its valves thin,
thick-margined, reddish brown on the outer surface, yellow tinged with
red on the inner surface, reticulate-veined; seeds suspended by a
slender coiled and somewhat dilated funicle, compressed, ovoid to nearly
orbicular, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, ¼′ long, and faintly
marked by large oval depressions; seed-coat thin, cartilaginous.
A tree, 25°—30° high, with a trunk rarely 5′—6′ in diameter, slender
upright branches forming a narrow irregular head, and branchlets
slightly striately angled, covered with minute white lenticels, light
gray and puberulous when they first appear, becoming dark brown in their
second year, and armed with stout rigid stipular spines sometimes ½′
long and persistent for many years; more often a shrub, sometimes only
2°—3° tall. Bark of the trunk smooth, light gray somewhat tinged with
red, and often marked by large pale blotches. Wood dark-colored, hard,
and heavy.
Distribution. Bluffs and bottom-lands of the lower Rio Grande, and on
the upper Nueces River in Uvalde County, Texas; usually a low shrub
spreading into broad clumps, but occasionally in the rich and
comparatively moist soil of the banks of river-lagoons a slender tree;
in Mexico more abundant, and of its largest size from the mouth of the
Rio Grande to the Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon.
3. Pithecolobium flexicaule Coult. Ebony.
_Zygia flexicaulis_ Sudw.
[Illustration: Fig. 540]
Leaves persistent, 1½′—2′ long, 2½′—3′ wide, long-petiolate with slender
puberulous petioles glandular near the middle and furnished at apex with
small orbicular solitary glands, and 4—6 usually 6-foliolate pinnæ, the
lowest pair often the shortest; leaflets oblong-ovate, rounded at apex,
reticulate-veined, thin or subcoriaceous, glabrous, dark green and
lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, ¼′—⅓′ long;
petiolules short and broad. Flowers light yellow or cream color, very
fragrant, sessile in the axils of minute caducous bracts, appearing from
June until August, in cylindric dense or interrupted spikes 1½′ long, on
stout pubescent peduncles fascicled in the axils of the upper leaves of
the previous year; corolla four or five times as long as the calyx and
like it puberulous on the outer surface, and about as long as the tube
formed by the union of the filaments; stamens ⅛′ long; ovary glabrous,
sessile. Fruit ripening in the autumn and remaining on the branches
until after the flowering season of the following year, sessile, tardily
dehiscent, thick, straight or slightly falcate, oblique at base, rounded
and contracted into a short broad point at apex, pubescent, 4′—6′ long
and 1′—1¼′ wide, with thick woody valves lined with a thick pithy
substance inclosing and separating the seeds; seeds suspended on a very
short straight funicle, bright red-brown, ½′ long and ¼′ wide,
irregularly obovoid, faintly marked by short oblong depressions;
seed-coat thick, crustaceous.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter,
separating 8°—10° from the ground into short spreading branches forming
a wide round head, and stout zigzag branchlets, puberulous, light green
or dark reddish brown when they first appear, becoming in their second
year glabrous or rarely puberulous, dark reddish brown or light gray,
and armed with the persistent stipular pale chestnut-brown spines ¼′—½′
long. Wood exceedingly heavy, hard, compact, close-grained, dark rich
red-brown slightly tinged with purple, with thin clear bright yellow
sapwood; almost indestructible in contact with the ground and largely
used for fence-posts; valued by cabinet-makers and for fuel, and
considered more valuable than that of any other tree of the lower Rio
Grande valley. The seeds are palatable and nutritious, and are boiled
when green or roasted when ripe by the Mexicans, who use their thick
shells as a substitute for coffee.
Distribution. Shores of Matagorda Bay, Texas, to the Sierra Nevada of
Nuevo Leon, and in Lower California; common on the bluffs of the
Gulf-coast and on both banks of the lower Rio Grande; south of the Rio
Grande one of the commonest and most beautiful trees of the region.
2. LYSILOMA Benth.
Trees or shrubs, with slender unarmed branchlets, abruptly bipinnate
long-petiolate persistent leaves, their petioles marked by large
conspicuous glands, and small leaflets in many pairs; stipules large,
membranaceous, persistent or deciduous. Flowers perfect or rarely
polygamous, minute, usually white or greenish white, from the axils of
minute bractlets more or less dilated at apex, in globose many-flowered
heads, on axillary solitary or fascicled peduncles; calyx campanulate,
5-toothed; corolla funnel-shaped, of 5 petals united for more than half
their length; stamens generally 12—30, exserted; filaments filiform,
united at base into a tube free from the corolla; anthers minute, ovoid,
versatile; ovary sessile, contracted into a slender subulate style, with
a minute terminal stigma. Legume broad, straight, compressed,
submembranaceous, the valves at maturity separating from the undivided
margins, continuous within, their outer layer thin and papery,
dark-colored, the inner rather thicker, pale yellow. Seeds compressed,
transverse, suspended by a long slender funicle, the hilum near the
base; seed-coat thin, crustaceous; radicle slightly exserted.
Lysiloma with about ten species inhabits tropical America from southern
Florida and the Bahama Islands, the West Indies, Mexico and Lower
California, to Central America and Bolivia. Several of the species
produce valuable timber.
The generic name, from λύσις and λῶµα, refers to the separation of the
valves from the margins of the legume.
1. Lysiloma bahamensis Benth. Wild Tamarind.
[Illustration: Fig. 541]
Leaves 4′—5′ long, glabrous or sometimes slightly puberulous, with
slender petioles 1′ long, marked near the middle with an elevated gland,
enlarged and slightly glandular at base, and 2—6 pairs of short-stalked
40—80-foliolate pinnæ; stipules foliaceous, ovate or ovate-oblong,
acuminate, auriculate and semicordate at base, ½′ long, usually
caducous; leaflets obliquely ovate or oblong, obtuse or acute, more or
less united at base by the greater development of one of the sides,
sessile or short-petiolulate, entire, reticulate-veined, light green,
paler on the lower than on the upper surface, ¼′—½′ long, and ⅛′—¼′
wide. Flowers about ⅓′ long, in heads appearing in Florida early in
April, coated before the flowers open with thick pale tomentum, and
after the exsertion of the stamens ⅔′ in diameter, on peduncles ¾′—1½′
long, solitary or fascicled in the axils of upper leaves, their bracts
and bractlets acute, membranaceous, caducous; calyx 5-toothed, pilose on
the outer surface, especially above the middle, 1/12′ long, and half as
long as the 5-lobed corolla with reflexed lobes; stamens about 20, twice
as long as the corolla, united for one fourth of their length into a
slender tube. Fruit ripening in the autumn and persistent on the
branches until after the flowering period of the following year,
stipitate, gradually narrowed and acute at the ends, 4′—5′ long, 1′
broad, with a slender stem 1′—2′ long, in clusters of 2 or 3 on short
peduncles abruptly and conspicuously enlarged at the apex; valves thin
and papery, bronze-green when fully grown, becoming dark red-brown,
separating slowly from the margins; seeds oval or obovoid, dark brown,
lustrous, ½′ long.
A tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, stout spreading
branches forming a wide flat head, and glabrous or somewhat pilose
conspicuously verrucose branchlets, bright red-brown when they first
appear, becoming pale or light reddish brown in their second year. Bark
of the trunk of young trees and of the branches smooth, light gray
tinged with pink, becoming on old trunks ¼′—½′ thick, dark brown and
separating into large plate-like scales. Wood heavy, hard, not strong,
tough, close-grained, rich dark brown tinged with red, with nearly white
sapwood 1′—1½′ thick, of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; in Florida
occasionally used and valued for boat and shipbuilding.
Distribution. Florida; shores of Bay Biscayne near Miami, and the
Everglade Keys, Dade County, common, and on Key Largo, Elliott’s,
Plantation, and Boca Chica Keys, not common; on the Bahama Islands and
in Cuba.
3. ACACIA Adans.
Trees or shrubs, with slender branches armed with spinescent stipules or
infrastipular spines. Leaves alternate on young branchlets and fascicled
in earlier axils, bipinnate, with usually small leaflets, persistent.
Flowers perfect or polygamous, small, in the axils of minute linear
bractlets more or less dilated and often peltate at apex, in globose
heads or cylindric spikes on axillary solitary or fascicled peduncles;
calyx campanulate, 5 or 6-toothed; petals as many as the divisions of
the calyx, more or less united; stamens numerous, usually more than 50,
exserted, free or slightly and irregularly united at base, inserted
under or just above the base of the ovary; filaments filiform; anthers
small, attached on the back, versatile; ovary contracted into a long
slender style terminating in a minute stigma. Legume nearly cylindric or
flat, indehiscent, continuous or divided within. Seeds transverse,
compressed; seed-coat thick, crustaceous, marked on each face of the
seed by an oval depression or ring; radicle straight, included, or
slightly exserted.
Acacia with more than four hundred species is widely distributed through
Australia, where it is most largely represented, tropical and southern
Africa, northern Africa, southwestern China, the warmer regions of
southern Asia, the islands of the south Pacific, tropical and temperate
South America, the West Indies, Central America and Mexico to the
southwestern boundaries of the United States where ten or twelve species
occur; of these five are arborescent. Acacia is astringent, and many
species yield valuable tan bark. Gum arabic is produced by different Old
World species; many of the species yield hard heavy durable wood, and
some of the Australian Acacias are large and valuable timber-trees. Many
species are cultivated for their graceful foliage and handsome fragrant
flowers.
The generic name, from ἀκακία, relates to the spines with which the
branches are usually armed.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in globose heads; corolla 5-lobed; ovary sessile; stipules
persistent, becoming spines.
Legume cylindric, glabrous, its sutures conspicuously thickened and
grooved; seeds in 2 ranks.
1. A. Farnesiana (E).
Legume flattened, pubescent, its sutures not thickened, slightly
grooved; seeds in 1 rank.
2. A. tortuosa (E).
Flowers in short, often interrupted, spikes; legume flattened,
pubescent, its sutures thickened; seeds in one rank.
3. A. Emoriana (E).
Flowers in elongated slender spikes; corolla of 5 petals only slightly
united at base; ovary stalked; stipules caducous; branchlets
armed with infrastipular spines.
Legume 1′—1¼′ wide, straight or slightly contracted between the
seeds, not becoming twisted and contorted at maturity; seeds
narrow-obovoid or ovoid; leaflets green, glabrous, with
prominent veinlets.
4. A. Wrightii (E).
Legume ½′—¾′ wide, often conspicuously contracted between the seeds,
becoming twisted and contorted at maturity; seeds nearly
orbicular; leaflets blue-green, pubescent, with obscure
veinlets.
5. A. Greggii (E, G, H).
1. Acacia Farnesiana Willd. Huisache. Cassie.
[Illustration: Fig. 542]
Leaves 2′—4′ long, with 2—8, usually 4 or 5, pairs of pinnæ, generally
somewhat puberulous on the short petiole and rachis; in Texas mostly
falling at the beginning of winter; pinnæ sessile or short-stalked,
remote or close together, with 10—25 pairs of linear acute leaflets
tipped with a minute point, unequal at base, sessile or
short-petiolulate, glabrous or puberulous, bright green, ⅛′—¼′ long.
Flowers bright yellow, very fragrant, 1/16′ long, opening during the
summer and autumn from the axils of minute clavate pilose bractlets, in
heads ⅔′ in diameter, on axillary thin puberulous peduncles, solitary or
most often 2 or 3 together and 1′—1½′ in length, with two minute dentate
connate bracts forming an involucral cup immediately under the
flower-head; calyx about half as long as the petals and like them
somewhat pilose on the outer surface; stamens two or three times as long
as the corolla; ovary short-stipitate, covered with long pale hairs.
Fruit oblong, cylindric or spindle-shaped, thick, turgid, straight or
curved, slightly contracted between the seeds, short-stalked, narrowed
at apex into a short thick point, 2′—3′ long, ½′—⅔′ broad, dark
red-purple, lustrous, and marked by broad light-colored bands along the
thickened grooved sutures, the outer coat of the walls thin and papery,
inclosing a thick pithy pulp-like substance surrounding the seeds, each
in a separate thin-walled compartment; seeds ovoid, thick, flattened on
the inner surface by mutual pressure, ¼′ long, suspended transversely in
2 ranks on a short straight funicle, light brown, lustrous, and faintly
marked by large oval rings.